I want to be an eternal hero!
by AlwaysTheHealersFault
Summary: The world of Eden is in chaos. The gang of legion plagues the world, but this is not all, even guilds are corrupt and the Eden heroes who make up their members. -Discontinued-
1. Chapter 1

Author note: This is my first fanfic. I hope it holds your interest. Any review is welcome, criticism of course. I want to be better at writing so feel free to point out bad things to me so I can work on it. Thank you and enjoy.

Chapter 1

Highlands Rescue.

"Run away Jaz!" The female warrior yelled as she just barely managed to parry an attack intended for the small child.

Young Jaz couldn't hear her though, she was frozen in fear. Her home, along with the few other houses, had been set aflame. The small army of Ursuns was all it took to break through the defenses of the fortress in the Highlands. Once the few guilds who were defending the fortress had been fired due to there being no real threat for the last two months, the Ursuns hiding away took the moment to seize the fortress without hesitation. It took no more than five minutes to break through the defenses, and no more than ten minutes to set the small camp inside ablaze and kill the few soldiers and civilians inside. Jaz had to watch as the Ursuns literally tore her parents apart with their bare hands.

The female warrior parried another attack, only this time the ursun's claw slashed her eye, causing her to scream before pushing the ursun away with her axe. Taking just a moment to collect herself, she gripped her axe and dashed at the ursun with impossible speed, leaving a golden image of herself behind as she sped forth before ramming the blunt side of her axe against the beast's head. The beast was stunned but she knew it would quickly recover, wasting no time she swung her axe and slashed through the ursun's jugular, causing blood to spew over her face. The ursun gripped at his neck and drowned in his own blood as he attempted to breath. He fell soon after, much to the warrior's relief.

The warrior turned around and noticed young Jaz still standing in shock exactly where she left her. Before she ran over to her, she quickly made sure there were no more threats. Luckily the guards at least managed to kill most of the ursun's who broke through, seeing how when she'd arrived there were only two left. She thanked the Eden gods she made it just in time before they decided to do what they will with Jaz.

"Jaz." The warrior called, staying as calm as she could. "Jaz." She called again, this time placing a shoulder on the young girl's shoulder. "Jaz!" She shook her enough to wake the girl from her shocked state.

"...Sunye?" The girl recognized the warrior, despite the blood and left eye now closed thanks to that last ursun.

"Jaz, come with me, it isn't safe here anymore." She continued speaking calmly to the girl.

The girl shook her head, she couldn't leave yet. "I can't. I can't leave without mom and dad." The girl began to look around, releasing herself from Sunye's grip and began her pointless search for her parents.

Sunye's eyes looked to the right the moment the poor girl had begun searching for her parents. To the right lied a couple ripped in half at the waist, claw marks ran down their bodies. Sunye recognized her parents, but she didn't dare let the girl know who seems to have forgotten what she'd witnessed. Sunye's eyes returned to the girl who suddenly let out a shriek. Sunye dashed over to her and wrapped her arms around the girl, hoping to shield her from whatever horror she'd witnessed. Sunye gripped her axe and her eyes began to dart around the burning buildings, wondering what enemy the girl had seen.

"He's dead!" The girl shouted into Sunye's chest.

Sunye's eyes rested on the body of Aries the lion general who was only a few feet away. His body was mangled and his face was so mutilated the only reason Sunye recognized his body was because of the armor that only he wore. She pulled Jaz closer before lifting her off the ground, firmly grasping the axe in her right hand.

"We have to go Jaz." Sunye told the girl before she began to run toward the gate. There were no enemies in sight, but better to be safe than sorry.

"No! Let go! I have to find my parents!" The girl shouted in protest as she pointlessly struggled against the warrior's embrace over her.

Before Sunye had a chance to retort, she found herself fall silent. The ground beneath her feet seemed to rumble. "...Earthquake? In the highlands?" She stopped in her tracks as she finished her sentence. The rumbling seemed to come and go in short intervals. Her eyes widened at the realization. The highlands never had a single earthquake throughout history, and these were short and in timed intervals that didn't skip a beat. This wasn't an earthquake... something large was coming.

Sunye subconsciously gripped the girl tighter in her left arm while raising her axe and searching for which direction the enemy was coming from. Young Jaz's protest were unheard by Sunye as she bent her knees and took up a stance, preparing herself to avoid whatever was coming. The rumbling grew heavier and with it the sounds of a loud crash with every step the beast took. Sunye's eyes glared toward where the crashes were coming from, the only entrance into this fortress. Sunye cursed the idiots who designed it to only have one entrance, now she'd have to break through whatever the hell was coming through.

Jaz finally stopped trying to break free from Sunye's grip when she saw Sunye's shocked expression. Jaz let her eyes travel in the same direction of Sunye's. Her eyes also widened at the sight, four ursuns made their way into the fortress, all of them roaring in anticipation of the battle they expected to take part in. But this isn't what froze Sunye's facial expression, it was the large pair of hands that gripped the top of the doorway entrance as a large monster ducked under it and came into view.

"So it only took the first wave to win did it?" The large monster spoke, his large voice filling the fortress without much effort.

Sunye just stared in shock at the largest ursun she's never seen. This ursun was nearly four times as big as a normal one, he easily towered over them and could have possibly jumped over the fortress wall if there wasn't a large moat built around the fortress. When Sunye felt Jaz grip tightly to her shoulder, she snapped to reality and gripped her axe once more before raising it defensively. The normal sized ursuns finally noticed her and began to growl and roar, readying themselves to tear her apart with their insane strength and sharp claws.

"Oh, one survived?" The oversized ursun took notice of her after hearing his fellow ursuns cries for battle.

Sunye noticed the ursuns were getting restless and stepping closer every second, waiting for the moment she dropped her guard. She just barely managed to beat two alone, one which she just happened to get the jump on as it was too preoccupied with cornering Jaz. There was no way she was going to beat four of them head on, especially with her right eye shut close thanks to that last one. She felt Jaz shaking in her arms, fear plastered on her face as her eyes darted between the ursuns.

"You!" Sunye suddenly yelled out which surprised the ursuns a bit and stopped them in their tracks. They seemed confused until Sunye pointed her axe toward the largest ursun. "You are the leader?!" She called again.

The ursun eyed her for a moment before taking three steps toward Sunye, quickly filling the gap between them with large steps. The smaller ursuns seemed to calm down a bit before moving away from Sunye. Sunye wanted to breath a breath of relief, she knew ursuns were proud and that leaders would definitely step forward if called out by a fighter. Sunye had no intention of challenging the large ursun, she imagined it would only take one hand to end her, like swatting an annoying fly.

"I am." the ursun answered, the voice now so close that Sunye could feel the vibrations in her body. "Are you challenging me warrior?" The ursun didn't show it nearly as much as the others but he definitely had the intentions of mauling Sunye if she answered that question with a yes.

"No." Sunye stated flatly. Sunye's eyes traveled to the girl in her arms before darting back to the large ursun that towered over her. "We just want to leave." Sunye stated, as if the idea wasn't ridiculous to the ursuns.

The leader chuckled a moment before grabbing his stomach with his hands and letting out a laugh that shook the fortress, the smaller ursuns laughing didn't help at all. Jaz covered her ears and placed her face into Sunye's chest. Sunye wished she could do the same, but she had to stay firm and focused. When the laughter finally ended the large ursun glared down at her, tilting down a bit as if to make better eye contact with Sunye.

"Let you go? You people treat ursuns like slaves here. You lock away our brothers bank and bob Johnson and you expect to be let go?!" The large bear roared, blowing Sunye's ponytail with his breath.

"We aren't part of this town. The girl is the daughter of a family of merchants, they were just here doing business when you attacked. I was here to buy supplies, that's how I know them. We have done nothing to you or any other ursun." Sunye stated, still holding eye contact with the monster.

He only took a few seconds to process everything she said before he stood tall and continued glaring down at her. "That doesn't matter. You humans are all the same. You enslave ursuns and force them to do labor work. You ridicule the Zumi race even though they have a better handle on technology then you could ever admit. You treat Hafkins the same as you would a dog. You even force Anuran out of your towns when they come looking for a mate, knowing full well they can only breed with women of your species. You humans are a plague on the world of Eden, we of Legion shall see to it that you are destroyed!" The ursun roared, causing his four other ursun soldiers to roar with him, their battle lust returning to them.

Sunye shook her head. "Not everyone is like that! Legion isn't even against humans in particular! They kill everyone, legion is nothing but a gang of bandits! You're being fooled!" Sunye attempted to talk some sense into him.

"Silence!" He roared. "Legion has given me the power to combat you filthy scum. Legion has morphed my body into something that can help the suffering ursuns." The ursun growled at Sunye. "Now, face me warrior. Feel honored to be defeated by the mighty Krow, commander of the highland legion!" He roared once more and prepared to fight.

Sunye also took up her axe, there was no way out of this. She hadn't expected to get out of this, but she at least thought they would let Jaz go considering she was a child. It was clear the hate the ursuns shared was too much, nothing was going to get through to them. She couldn't deny anything he said, it was true that there was much racial prejudice among humans. Not everyone was like this, herself for example, but she wasn't going to be able to convince this ursun in the next few seconds before he had his way with her.

"Now die human!" The legion commander yelled before raising his fist to smash them.

"Not today asshole!" Another male voice, although much less chilling then the ursuns, sounded throughout the fortress.

The legion commander didn't have the time to even turn around before three arrows shot into his back causing him to roar in pain. The smaller ursuns saw their pained leader and turned toward the direction of the attacker. Sunye couldn't see what was happening, the large ursun was standing in front of whoever had passed through the large fortress gate.

"Come to me ice! pierce my enemy and solidify their movements!" Sunye recognized the way these words were spoken, this was a spell. "Snow storm!" Another voice yelled behind the large ursun, only this one sounded female.

The ground around the small troop of ursuns seemed to freeze before their feet were solidified in ice. Shards of ice quickly appeared from the frozen ground next and began to shoot out in all directions while cutting the ursuns, two of them managing to pierce straight through two of the smaller ursun's head. Another arrow was shot and pierced through the head of another ursun, leaving only one smaller one left with his commander. The last smaller ursun managed to keep himself alive, just barely dodging shards of ice and deflecting a few arrows with the guards on his wrist. Sunye saw this as a chance, she carefully placed Jaz on the ground before ordering her to go hide. Thankfully the girl agreed to this without any trouble before running to hide.

Sunye gripped her axe and waited. As much as she'd like to Onrush this smaller ursun, she couldn't just run into that ice spell. She noticed however that the ground was losing its icy touch and forming back into the ordinary fortress floors. The spell ended soon and the ice shards disappeared along with the icy floor, Sunye took this as her chance and dashed at impossible speed like before and bashed her axe against the back of the Ursun's head and successfully stunned him. She went for the kill but a arrow shot forth and pierced his skull and he fell flat on his back. Sunye's eyes darted toward the direction it came from, there stood a hunter with his bow still in position and his hand pulled back after he'd released the arrow.

She would've offered a thank you, but the monster sized ursun roared before dashing toward someone else. Sunye noted the legion commander wasn't going for her or the hunter... then who?

"God damn it! This is why I said we shouldn't have come here without a tank!" Sunye suddenly heard a female shout before a flash of purple came running by her at a speed she could almost compare to her Onrush attack.

Sunye saw it was a magician female, the pointy hat was a dead giveaway, along with the staff in her hand. Her feet seemed to sparkle and must've been what gave her that boost of speed that only lasted temporarily. Sunye took her eyes off the magician when she noticed the legion commander fly by next in pursuit of the magician. The hunter wasted no time and began shooting at the large ursun.

"Just run fatty! You could use the exercise!" The hunter shouted, somehow seriously fighting and cracking jokes at the same time.

Sunye gripped her axe and got ready to Onrush the large monster.

"Bless me mothers of healing. Cure!" Sunye heard a new voice, only this one sounded like... a child?

Before Sunye could turn to see who it was, she felt the pain in her eye go away and when she opened it she saw she could see again. She turned her sight to the small healer adorned in all white who was standing a few feet away, between her and the hunter. Sunye noted that she was a hafkin for sure, she was the size of a kid but her body was developed enough for an adult. She smiled at Sunye and gave her a thumbs up before running to catch up to the magician that was still cursing in the background, most of them seemed to be aimed at the hunter oddly enough.

Sunye gripped her axe once more and prepared to fight this monster again. She ran towards the monster once more before using another Onrush that gave her impossible speed as she dashed toward the large ursun. She jumped this time, seeing how she had to hit his head in order to stun him. She flew toward and just barely missed the beast as it was still trying to catch the magician. Sunye crashed into the wall with a nasty slam before she fell back on the floor, temporarily stunning herself.

Meanwhile the magician was running circles around the fortress, avoiding dead bodies as much as she could. She looked back at the monster and saw arrows hitting him and a few zipping past as they just barely missed. She looked forward and for a moment she thought she saw something run by her, something that bent light? Like some clear figure that slightly warped whatever it walked by. She suddenly stopped when she realized what it was. She turned around and began chanting a new spell that created flames which floated around her before massing into a large ball of fire over her head.

The commander of legion roared before he began to swing his fist down at the magician that had seemed to seal her fate by stopping. But just before he could bring his fist down, he felt a prick in his leg and suddenly he couldn't move his body. His eyes were still able to move and he trailed them down to see a white haired thief with one of her daggers stabbed into his leg. She smirked at him before retaking her dagger and disappearing once again, the slight bend of light being the only way to see her movements as she ran behind his back.

"Fire bomb!" He heard the magician shout.

His eyes turned back in time to see a mass of fire shaped in a ball hurdle towards his head before exploding on contact. The magician cheered after the impact. She turned to the hunter who had stopped his rain of arrows upon seeing the impact. He noticed her look of triumph come over her face. He rolled his eyes when he realized where this was going.

"That's two kills along with a legion commander! Whose bad ass now, eh Fateo?!" The magician gloated, using a terrible play on the hunter's name to call him fat.

"Whatever Fatgels." The hunter shrugged his shoulder, not wanting to show how much it annoyed him that the monster didn't go down to his arrows. "I got way more kills then you last ti-" The hunter suddenly stopped mid-sentence as his eyes widened. "Fatty look out!" He yelled to the magician.

The magician was confused for a moment before she felt a painful grip tighten around her whole body. She was easily lifted off the ground while the grip grew tighter and tighter. The attacker turned her to face him and her already surprised and pained expression grew even more. She stared into the face of Krow the commander of Legion, one side of his face was badly damaged, part of his jaw was blown away, exposing the skeleton of the jaw. His face still smoking from the impact of the firebomb but not one trace of flame was seen.

"Miserable human!" He roared before tightening his grip.

The magician yelled out in pain as she struggled to free herself. Another set of three arrows slammed into the beast's chest, the hunter couldn't aim for his head with him holding the magician so close. This time the arrows didn't seem to affect him as much as when he was surprised, this time he only tightened his grip around the magician.

The small hafkin healer got as close as she could before she began a spell. The thief reappeared behind the beast and stabbed into his leg again, but this time there was no effect. She cursed the poison contained in deadly containment, once used there was a certain amount of time she had to wait before it would work again, she knew but she couldn't think of anything else to do.

The ursun growled after receiving another stab from the thief and tightened his grip again. The magician's cried out loud once more before they all heard a sickening crack and the magician went limp.

"Cure!" The small hafkin finished her spell, but watched as the effect did nothing for the magician. She spent enough time healing people to know everyone emitted a certain amount of energy. She could feel this energy, it's how she knew who was injured the most and who needed it and when. She shook her head at the realization that the magician's energy had disappeared shortly after the crack and her last breath escaped her. "Shit! Not again! Not anymore of my people!" She yelled before closing her eyes and summoning white energy around her body.

The thief noticed this and quickly ran over to her, grabbing her by the shoulders and broke her concentration which caused the energy to dissipate and disappear. "No, Midgie! You know you can't do that in the middle of a battle!" The thief yelled at her.

"But Vice is-"

"No! It's too dangerous for you to do that! you know that! Vice will be fine, we just have to beat this guy quickly!" The thief refused to let her do whatever she was about to attempt.

Midgie, the small hafkin healer, silently agreed by nodding her head and getting ready to fight again. By this time the ursun commander had dropped the dead magician and prepared to charge at the hunter that was firing arrows just as much as he fired obscene language at the beast for what he'd done. The ursun got ready to charge before he suddenly heard something that stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Hey dumb ass bear!" The ursun recognized that female voice, the very first he heard here. He turned his head to see Sunye standing with her back facing him. She bent over and began to shake her bottom, taunting the beast. "Didn't you hear me dumb ass?! Or are you ursuns so retarded the only thing you can do is manual labor?!" She persisted in her taunting by now spanking her bottom.

The bear's eyes went red and red smoke seemed to emit from his head as he charged at the warrior who'd successfully provoked him. He came straight toward her, ignoring the arrows fired into his back and the foul language emitted by the hunter. Sunye took this as her chance and dashed at the ursun once more, this time coming at him in a perfect straight line, she easily lined herself up to smash her axe against his head during her Onrush. Successfully landing the hit, she watched as he stood stunned.

the light around his head seemed to bend before the thief suddenly appeared atop his head, having run up his back, she stabbed her daggers into his skull and found it to be too thick. She couldn't believe how tough this guy was, first he took enough arrows to take down Mori Mori, then he managed to withstand a point blank firebomb to his face and now she just barely pierced his skin and probably didn't even crack the skull. The legion commander regained his composure and began towards Sunye again. Norn was nearly shaken off before she stabbed a dagger into his shoulder which was far less thick then his head, but thick none the less, she managed to stab far enough to hang onto his back while he thrashed around, attempting to catch Sunye. She complained about how thick his skin was as she held on, she now realized why the arrows didn't affect him much, most of them were falling right back out of his skin as he thrashed about, only a few desperately clung into his back.

As she pulled herself up a realization dawned on her. How had she not noticed it before? She ripped her dagger out and fell to the ground. The large ursun paid her no mind and mindlessly ran after Sunye who was running circles in a similar fashion to the magician, just waiting for the moment she could try to Onrush him again. The thief quickly stood up and ran over to the magician, receiving a confused look from Midgie before she quickly went back to watching over Sunye, making sure that if she did get hurt that she would heal her in time.

The thief stood over the mangled magician, a sad look overcome her for only a moment before she shook her head and assured herself that they would be in time. She bent over the magician and took the staff from her hands, thanking the gods of Eden that it hadn't been broken. She quickly ran over to the small healer and shoved the staff into her face.

"Use this!" she quickly told the healer.

"Vice's staff? Why?"Midgie was confused while she stared at the staff, wondering where her friend was going with this.

"This guy's got a tough exterior. Physical attacks aren't going to work. Vice's magic blew his face off, magic's our best shot here." She explained.

"I'm a cleric, not a-"

"Remember that move you just learned? You've been bragging about it for days and now your saying you can't use it now that we really need it?" She smirked at the healer, hoping she'd riled her friend up just a bit with her smart comment.

The healer discarded her mace and shield and practically snatched the staff away. "I got it! Just don't get hit or I can't guarantee I will be able to cast fast enough to heal you without that mace." She had been successfully riled up by her friend, a rare act, probably only successful due to the dire situation they were in.

The thief smirked before disappearing again. Midgie watched the bending light dash off toward Sunye and the ursun. The thief placed her daggers in their respective sheaths before suddenly seeming to gain speed. Sunye rounded a burning camp before she was suddenly lifted off the ground bridal style. She was surprised and scared for a moment before the thief appeared, holding her in her arms. She was going to raise a question but the large ursun suddenly came crashing through the burning camp instead of going around, Sunye felt the taunt was a little over the top but she had to get him to come after her somehow. The thief and this new found speed easily outran the large ursun. Sunye finally got over the surprise of seeing him crash through the tent and went to raise her question again.

"What are you doi-"

Before she had a chance to finish she heard the cleric yell something and all of a sudden a giant hammer that seemed to be made of light came crashing down over the Ursun. It didn't take Sunye long to realize why the thief had ran in and scooped her up, that was a large spell, just like the snow storm earlier, something she'd rather not be caught up in.

The large ursun looked stunned as another hammer came crashing down. Sunye watched the cleric as she continued to spam the same spell over and over, and for some strange reason the monster never came out of his stunned state which was odd. Normally once stunned, it would take some time before the same type of stun could be used again, but this stun seemed to continue on forever so long as she spammed it. Sunye watched as the beast collapsed to the ground and hammers continued to slam into his body.

"Damn it! The spells not even hurting him!" Sunye cried in disbelief.

The thief only smirked some more at this comment. "No... she's just wearing him down. Cleric magic doesn't work like offensive magic. Think of it like this, right now she is just lowering his magic shield, so that her next move will do more. Cleric attacks typically don't work in a lethal way. They are meant to weaken targets, not kill, but this guy is different. He's been mutated into a legion commander, cleric magic works well against him, much better than normal monsters. Normally physical attacks are enough, this is the 2nd time I've seen a legion that needed magic to be killed." The thief explained to the warrior as they watched golden hammers of light smash into the downed beast over and over.

"Smite!" The cleric called once more as another golden hammer smashed into the monster. Suddenly her staff began to glow with white light before she pointed it at the beast. She sent a ray of light at the beast this time, which pierced his skull with ease upon impact. (This is Light's sanction by the way.)

All of them continued to watch the legion leader, praying the tough guy finally lost. Sunye ended up letting out a breath she didn't realize she was holding when she saw he really was dead and wasn't getting back up. She shook her head and turned to thank the thief, only to find she was gone. She turned around completely and saw the three of them had all run over to the dead magician. Sunye felt a pang of guilt, she'd died rescuing her and she could've possibly saved her if she hadn't missed that Onrush and knocked herself out. Remembering the fact that she was rescued, reminded her of Jaz. She quickly began looking around for the young girl.

"Jaz!" Sunye called. "Jaz where are you?!"

She received no answer which worried her. She never saw Jaz come out during the battle, she prayed the girl hadn't been hurt during her unconscious moment after the Onrush failure. She shook her head and threw away the thought, continuing her search for the young girl. She searched the back of the small fortress first, seeing how that was as far from the fighting as you could've gotten, she had also rescued her here. Her search proved successful when she found young Jaz standing out in the open, she thanked the Eden gods the monster hadn't noticed her.

"Jaz, thank goodness." She called to the girl as she walked over.

She approached her until her eyes landed on the dead bodies a few feet in front of the girl. Her eyes widened when she realized the girl had found her parents torn apart pieces. Her mouth opened to speak comforting words, but she closed it before she could, she had no idea what to say. The girl finally noticed Sunye's presence, Sunye attempted to speak again only this time she was cut off by the girl who immediately ran to her and began to cry to her as she hugged her stomach. Sunye had no idea what to do, all she could manage to do was hold the poor girl as she cried.

"it'll be alright, Jaz." She spoke to her in a soft voice.

It took some time, but she finally got Jaz well enough to move. She hadn't stopped crying but she was at least walking with Sunye. Sunye made her way to the people who had just saved her life, her words caught in her throat as she approached and noticed the thief look her way. She didn't know what to say, how could she thank them enough for rescuing them, how could she apologize to them about the death of their team member. She didn't know what to say once again, but she opened her mouth anyway and was about to speak something, anything she could. Her words fell back down her throat though as the thief held her finger up and gestured for her to keep quiet.

She didn't understand until she finally noticed the bright light emitted from the small cleric. The entire floor around her was bathed in a white light, small little balls of light were circling her body, in fact they circled the small area around them, a few danced past the hunter's face which was stuck in a worried, yet serious face as he stared down at the magician. The lights passed the thief who was also looking down, her face didn't match the hunter's though, she looked calm, almost as if she didn't care, as if she was watching some boring show on T.V. The balls of light even passed Sunye a few times, one began to circle around Jaz, her crying fit replaced with curiosity of the scene before her. She could swear the ball of light that circled her was attempting to cheer her up, when it saw her stop crying it danced in front of her face just a little longer before seeming to float with the wind away.

Sunye watched the balls of light before her eyes turned back to the healer. She was completely focused, muttering chants under her breath with her eyes closed, she seemed closed off to the world. Sunye had never seen a spell like this before. Though she never saw it she was almost positive she knew which spell it was. She was a healer and they were standing next to a dead body, there was really only one spell that came to mind, the longest spell in history that no one could instantly cast or hasten its speed, the spell called Revive. It was considered taboo to use the spell of revive in the middle of combat. It was a hard spell to control and not to mention it took a long time to even work. Using it in combat could result in more deaths while trying to save one, especially the healer considering they can't move during this time, they must stay absolutely focused. Sunye also understood this spell had slim chances. Getting to someone within thirty seconds of their death provided around a 90% success of working, but the longer you wait the less chance you have. After two minutes of death it was estimated that you have a 28% chance of being revived. Considering most battles can drag on, it wasn't surprising a lot of healers go through life having failed to revive countless people. Some considered being a healer a blessing, most healers find it to be too much of a toll on their emotions, always wishing they had been faster to save someone.

Sunye hoped it worked, but the chances were slim. Not only does it take time to cast the spell, but she knew they had been here at least two minutes casting that spell, it took her at least that long to calm Jaz enough to move. Plus the time during the battle when the magician was dead... she didn't want to think about it but she imagined the chance was close to 0%.

"Mothers of Eden have mercy, bring this soul back to life. Revive!" Midgie finished chanting.

All of the balls of light shot forth into the magicians dead body, the body began to heal the major injuries done to it, but that was normal. Something was missing, Midgie and the thief seemed to realize it. Midgie closed her eyes and shook her head, attempting to keep herself from crying. The thief only tilted her head away, forcing herself not to look at the healed body that remained lifeless. The hunter however was confused, he began to grow impatient after seeing the spell seem to work but the magician was still not moving.

"Hey." He called to Midgie but she didn't look his way, only flinched slightly when she heard him. He grew angry and walked over to her, looking down at the small hafkin. "What's wrong? Why isn't she moving? The spell worked right? Her wounds were healed right?" The hunter began to bombard her with questions.

"Haseo!" The thief quickly spoke up, gathering his attention away from the healer. "Revive always heals the body, it's supposed to do that." She sighed when she saw he still didn't understand and that she'd have to spell it out. "The balls of light heal the body so that the body will function once the soul returns. but there is supposed to be another light that emits from the body, showing that the soul has returned." She finished before turning her attention to seemingly nowhere to her right.

Haseo the hunter looked down at his fallen teammate and watched the body continue to lay there lifeless. He shook his head grabbing the small hafkin by her white dress. "No! This isn't right! She's healed so just call her soul back already! Come on Midgie!" He lifted her off the ground without even realizing it.

Midgie continued to avoid his gaze. He would've said something else but a hand gripped his wrist and he noticed the thief had walked over, a threatening look in her eye. "It's not Midgie's fault. Nothing can be done now. Vice is gone and you're not helping by pestering her." The thief understood his reaction, but she wouldn't let him take it out on Midgie who is already feeling it's her fault. The thief knew she'd have to smack some sense into Midgie later as well.

The hunter stared down at the thief before his grip relaxed and he carefully placed Midgie on the ground. The thief let him go and watched his eyes water before he quickly turned around and walked a few feet away.

"Damn it fatty! Why do you always got to be a fucking show off! If you would've paid attention then this wouldn't have happened! Now whose going to raid the restaurants with me? Eating until we break the buckles on our belts." Haseo began his cries of regret, wishing he'd not taken her presence for granted.

Haseo was too distracted, naming things he'd never get to do with her again. He never noticed the smiles that appeared on everyone's faces as a bright light seemed to rise from the fallen magician's back. The light formed into a tree made of light before finally compressing together into a solid sphere of light.

"Whose going to drink with me at the bar? Whose going to get into fights with the local drunkards after stepping on their shoes and insisting that they shouldn't have such big feet in the first place?" Haseo continued wallowing in grief, completely ignorant of the light behind him.

The ball of light slowly trailed down before it disappeared into the magicians body. Not even a moment later and they watched as the magician sucked in air before coughing quietly. Midgie went to shout at the magician, possibly her name in excitement, but she was cut off by the thief who grabbed her shoulder and then pointed toward Haseo. Midgie looked and couldn't hide the smile that formed, witnessing him spill everything. The thief found it amusing but bent down to help the magician stand up first.

"Whose going to help me sell over priced things in the market by buying them and telling other people that it was the best deal you've ever had on that item? Whose going to help me out of guild meetings by pretending to have gotten sick from food poisoning? Damn it fatty! Why didn't you fight harder to be revived! You lazy fat bastard!" Haseo continued, now gripping the bridge of his nose with his fingers while he sobbed softly.

Sunye watched the entire scene and she had one question that she really wanted to ask. She had no idea why they called each other fat. She could have sworn she heard the magician call him fat while running away from Krow. It was clear from Sunye's view that these two were in prime shape, not a trace of misplaced fat, not to mention the fact that the hunter's body seemed quite chiseled for his thin frame.

"Who am I going to trick into doing my laundry by saying that I am allergic to detergent?" He cried. "Who will-"

Before he had a chance to finish he felt a hand on his shoulder. He expected to see The thief there to comfort him, it couldn't have been Midgie, she was far too short to reach his shoulder. He turned, ready to cry to the thief, he quickly buried his head onto her shoulder, grabbing her back in a tight embrace. He noticed she didn't hug him back but he expected that, she was cold on the outside but he knew she was loving on the inside. It wasn't until he heard a few chuckles of laughter before he opened his eyes that were full of tears. He saw ahead of him was Midgie, Sunye, some little girl and... the thief? Midgie and the thief getting a good laugh out of his episode.

Wait a minute... if she's right there... then who is...?

He pulled away and stared down into those bright brown eyes.

"You trick who into doing your laundry?" The brown eyes narrowed and he realized he'd grabbed a hold of the magician.

"What? But when? How? Why?" Haseo was dumb struck, unable to form a complete sentence.

"You fat bastard!" She pushed him off and gripped him by his shirt. "All those years I've done your laundry and you were lying! I'll kill you!" She yelled while shaking the confused hunter as best she could.

Midgie elbowed the thief playfully. "Hey, Norn." She called her. "Isn't that the cutest fat couple you've ever seen?" She began laughing which seemed to melt the cold exterior the thief had shown so far, she joined in laughter before they gripped each other to keep from falling over.

"You were dead!" Haseo suddenly shouted, still unable to comprehend what just happened.

"No thanks to you! All that work on that stupid bow and you barely did anything! We spent days conning people out of their money in Aven and it was all for that stupid bow!" She continued yelling, not seeming to feel any pain despite once having her bones crushed.

Sunye continued watching the scene before her. Here she was watching a magician who recently died now arguing with some hunter over petty things. The cold thief and tiny healer stood by watching the scene with great amusement. It was like they didn't just get out of a fight that could've gotten then all killed, though one actually did die. When Haseo began to understand the situation, he quickly pretended he knew all along and that he didn't mean any of what he said. No one seemed to buy it though. He quickly began walking off in an attempt to get away from his friend's rage as she was still on his back about the laundry. They ended up walking out of the fortress, Sunye and the girl trailing behind them.

When they got outside and stood at the end of the bridge away from the fortress, the magician had finally stopped Haseo by jumping in front of him and threatening to use a spell on him. He mocked her and threatened her with his bow. Midgie and the thief were encouraging them and even making bets on who would win. Sunye couldn't believe these people who were joking and arguing over petty things were the same people who just rescued her and Jaz. She needed to say something, but there was so much and she had no idea how to word it all, before she could finish thinking she began to speak.

"Thank you all." Sunye said while looking down. Her voice just barely above a whisper. She cursed herself inwardly for speaking so low, she went to gather their attention only to be surprised to find all four of them looking her way, seeming to have dropped whatever they were previously doing.

"Don't worry about it. That's what we do." The small cleric was the first to speak up. The other's seemed to silently agree.

"Well I have to thank you some way. I don't really have much money but-"

Before she could finish she watched as the magician and hunter pushed each other while running up to her face, shaking the bridge slightly as Sunye hadn't finished walking off of it.

"Hey don't worry about it, any small amount of money is fine!" Haseo spoke up first.

"Yeah any amount of gold is good! " The magician quickly chimed in next.

Before Sunye could say anything she watched the thief walk up and push both of them off the bridge and into the water of the moat around the fortress. Both of them began cursing foul words that made Sunye cover Jaz's ears.

"We didn't help because we wanted a reward. Don't listen to those two." She assured Sunye, scowling at the two who were trying to climb out of the moat.

"Surely there is some way I can repay you." Sunye insisted.

The thief gave her a slightly annoyed look, it was the first time she's had someone so insistent on repaying her. Normally people are begging you not to ask for too much money in return for services, not trying to offer you money or some way to help you out. Before the thief had a chance to say something vile in hopes of getting her to drop it, she was pushed aside and into the water by the small healer. The two already in the water laughed upon seeing the sight of the thief fall into the water, though they both soon regretted it as she pulled out her daggers and began swimming toward the two fools who began desperately trying to climb the dirt wall out of the moat.

"If you really want to help us out." Midgie began, getting Sunye's attention away from the three in the water. "You could join the guild." She put on a bright smile for her, the bright white dress only seemed to bring it out more.

"Guild?" Sunye asked, she hadn't considered that these four were in a guild together, it would make sense. But she never saw a guild come help anyone without receiving payment for it.

"Inquisitors!" She shouted her guild name. "I'm Midgie. On paper I'm the leader, but in reality there are three leaders." She explained. Sunye remained quiet, waiting for her to continue. "We're a helpful guild, we don't take money from the poor and we help everyone and we have no racial prejudice here." She turned now to the three in the water who were somehow scaling the dirt wall. The fact that the thief was behind them trying to stab her dagger into them as they climbed certainly helped them climb faster. "The magician who came back from the dead is called Viceciple. You can call her Vice or Fatgels. The hunter is named Haseo, you can also call him Fateo if you want. The sadistic thief is called Norn, don't call her fat unless you want her to cut off your nipples or something." Midgie warned playfully, but Sunye detected the hint of seriousness in it. "Norn's one of the leaders I was talking about, the other one is Koteru. He's our tank but he had some hot date with some girl called Sakura or something. I doubt he holds onto her, the man can't settle down for anything. Fateo also has some girl, but he's more of stalking her, some girl named Maple. I doubt he gets her either." Midgie finished introducing them.

"I'm Sunye." Sunye introduced herself before her eyes trailed down to Jaz who was looking at the three who managed to get out of the moat and were getting the water out of their clothes. The thief seemed to give up on hurting them after the physical activity of climbing out of a moat. "This is Jaz." Sunye introduced them.

Midgie looked to Jaz who was actually at eye level to her. "Nice to meet you Jaz." Midgie smiled at her.

Jaz looked back to Midgie before nodding her head and looking down at her shoes.

"It's going to take me forever to dry off." Haseo complained as he made his way over to them.

"Oh shut up. Try wearing a wet bra." Viceciple complained next to him.

"How about both of you shut up. Unless you want to take a second trip?" Norn glared at them both. She smirked when she watched them both tense and shake their heads to the side.

"Hey Sunye is joining our guild!" Midgie yelled to them as she ran up next to them, nearly breaking her neck in trying to make eye contact with them all from her close proximity.

"She is?" Norn asked while looking at the person in question.

"I am?" Sunye never confirmed that she would.

"Of course!" Midgie yelled next.

"Oh...ok." Sunye suddenly found herself tossed into a guild without much time to think about it.

"Thank god. We need a tank since Koteru is out playing with that healer. What was her name again?" Viceciple spoke up.

"Sakura." Midgie answered.

"Like he'll ever settle down. He's just going to get sex and move onto the next again I bet." Haseo nudged Viceciple with an elbow that made them both laugh.

Norn watched them and was tempted to crack a joke about them being a couple with the way they acted, but she was cut off when Sunye decided to speak up again.

"I really want to thank you again. I'm also glad to be part of the guild." Sunye bowed her head.

Everyone except Norn seemed to be confused by the gesture of bowing when thanking someone. They figured she was probably from a different continent and didn't question it. Midgie walked over after a moment and reached into her pocket, taking out a small emblem from her dress pocket. She placed the emblem in Sunye's hand. Sunye looked at the emblem, noting that it looked like a manticore of some kind.

"That's the guild emblem. Now everyone will know you're part of Inquisitors. We can handle the paperwork later." Midgie attempted to pat her shoulder but only managed to reach her chest in which she patted her right breast a few times, leaving a blushing Sunye confused at the gesture.

"Get used to it." Viceciple and Norn stated at the same time, they had their share of Midgie's attempt at the gesture. They had no idea why she did it even though she knew she wasn't tall enough, they secretly believe she just likes to embarrass people. Sadly she gets away with it due to her size and child-like face.

Sunye eventually shrugged it off and looked at the emblem again. She didn't imagine she would join a guild, most of them were corrupt and only wanted money. It was normal for a town to hire a guild to stay and protect it, but the highlands fortress hand no such thing. Money was scarce here and they just didn't have enough in the budget to afford the price of a guild. Sunye gladly accepted the emblem, she knew Inquisitors would have helped without pay considering they just took on a commander of legion without pay.

Sunye noticed Jaz trying to see the emblem, she lowered her hand and let Jaz see the emblem. Jaz cracked a small smile, she was young but she knew these people were amazing. She wanted to be like them in that instant. Haseo the hunter was holding Viceciple the Magician in a headlock while she struggled, Norn the thief was cleaning her nails with a dagger while she watched, Midgie the cleric was tickling Haseo in some terrible attempt at getting him to let go of Viceciple, it proved useless as it only tightened his grip as he let out a laugh. Then there was Sunye the warrior, the newest addition to the guild.

Jaz never understood. She remembered this scene all her life. How did the guild of Inquisitors turn into a Guild that extorted money from the poor for meaningless protection they didn't need. How did they turn into the guild that was accused of killing people on the roads and stealing all of their gold and selling any items they took off them. How did they go from this to what they are now? How could ten years turn them into one of the greediest guilds in Eden Eternal? She would get her answers, ten years from now she would find out why the guild she admired so much growing up, had been rumored to be one of the worst guilds to have been established.

Authors note: Well that's the end of the first chapter. Just a glimpse into the main character's past. If you somehow made it to the end and are reading this than thank you for reading.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: So here we go again. Chapter two is here. This chapter takes place ten years after Jaz is rescued, so Jaz is now 17.

Disclaimer : I don't own Eden Eternal.

chapter 2

Jaz wrapped her amber hair into a ponytail. Her red eyes checked her image in the mirror once more before she gave a nod and grabbed up her backpack. She hit a small button on her backpack and held it for five seconds before the pack suddenly shrunk in size. She held up the backpack that was now the size of her fist. She clipped the miniature backpack to her belt before marking off a checklist in her head.

_Backpack...Check._

_ Weapon...Check._

_ Extra weapons...Check. _

_ Pasco... Oh right... Got to find Pasco._

She sighed before continuing her mental checklist.

_ Magic endowed Pants...Check._

_ Silly magician shoes... Check._

_ Mori Mori trophy...ugh... check._

She didn't consider herself much of a girly-girl, in fact she viewed herself as a tomboy. This trophy however, made her want to squeal every single time she looked at it. Mori Mori's trophy was... disgusting to say the least. It looked like some disgusting, lumpy, and moist egg sack embedded into her shoulder. She always thought it was cool that Boss trophies had to infuse themselves onto, or even sometimes inside your body in order for them to be used. This disgusting egg sack did not fall under the category of cool for her. Sadly there were only two ways to get rid of a trophy you didn't want. Only two trophies could be used by a single person at once. So all she had to do was find two other trophies and use them. Her body would discard the first one placed and the cycle would repeat. The 2nd way was that she could go to Aven and pay money to have it removed. The trophy removal was expensive, she found it ridiculous, but then again attempting to remove trophies was like heart surgery. It wasn't something you should let anyone do unless they were a trained professional.

"750 gold to remove a trophy..." She sighed at the thought.

She looked at the trophy embedded in her shoulder. It looked like she had some parasitic life form attached to her shoulder. It even had a few roots that stretched through her shoulder. No one ever believed her but she swore it had moved numerous times. The worst part about it all was that she couldn't hide her shame. Trophies had to be let out in the open in order to work. If that was all she might've just hid it away and not use it, not that she knew what it did yet. Sadly though these things always had a catch, trophies were useful but they had to be kept in the open for them to work... that and the fact that trophies hidden away can turn on the owner for a reason no one understood. No one had solid proof of this until the famous illusionist Lisiuex was strangled to death by Karen's whip. Apparently Lisiuex had wore her clothes over the trophy and suddenly one day it turned against her and choked her to death in a pvp match. Lisiuex had a large fan base who loved watching the pvp matches she was involved in. One of the top in the bracket was strangled by their own trophy in the middle of a match.

Jaz tried not to think about what this egg sack would do to her. She swore there were eggs inside of it. She'd hate for it to suddenly release the eggs inside her body and tiny parasitic mushrooms rampaged inside her body, giving her a painful death.

_Hmm... Parasitic mushrooms attack?_

She thought that would actually be a cool effect if that's what the trophy did to the enemy. It would be awesome if the trophy activated and suddenly her enemy was eaten alive from the inside. Well... she actually might not want to watch it while it happened.

She forced the thought from her mind as she did a once over in the mirror, scrunching her nose at the sight of the egg sack that looked like an infection on her shoulder. How she hated that she had to wear a shirt without sleeves just for this stupid thing... oh well at least it was warm outside. She sighed before walking toward the door of her small house, grabbing a staff that was leaned against the wall next to the door. She clipped it to her belt so it rested sideways, she'd have to buy a sheathe that went over her shoulder when she got to Aven. She opened her door and squinted her eyes as she let them adjust to the bright light from the sun. She took a key from her pocket and locked the door after closing it and then placed the key back in her pocket.

She stopped to look at her home once more. "Thanks for ten years of shelter my friend." She placed her hand on the wooden door and smiled.

After her goodbyes to her home she turned to the rest of the small village located in Limestone Mountain. Only a few people were up and about, but the village was small and to be expected. She couldn't fight the small smile that appeared on her face as she watched the people go by, this village was completely at peace, she didn't understand why the rest of the world couldn't be. She was going to change that though, she was going to help the rest of the world until every city she came across ended with the same scene as this village.

Her left hand found its way into her pocket before pulling out a photo. This was her motivation to save Eden Eternal. The only picture she had of the five people who saved her life ten years ago when her family visited the highlands on business. After a week of being together she eventually had to leave their care when one of her relatives took custody over her. She swore that she would meet them again. There in the picture was Midgie the healer, Norn the thief, Haseo the hunter, Viceciple the magician, and Sunye the warrior, all of them posing for a picture for her to keep when she had to leave. She was in the picture as well, she hardly recognized the girl who was once crying over her dead parents as she was smiling in the picture. This picture was proof that there were people in the world who could make a difference without expecting a reward, true Eden heroes in her eyes.

She tucked the photo away with care, she hadn't let it be damaged once in the past ten years and she had no plans to start now. She planned to join the guild as soon as she could, she would repay them for all they did and change the world of Eden for the better. Sure a few people in the village laughed at the notion when she expressed it, but it wasn't because they thought the idea was childish or something, they just hadn't expected it from the self proclaimed tomboy of the village. She grimaced at the memory as she began walking through the village. So what if she wanted to change the world for the better? What was wrong with a tomboy having a dream like that? Just because she was a little rougher than other girls didn't mean she couldn't have a few sugar and rainbows in her head. Sure she'd rather fight then talk things out, and so what if she only hung around the guys as she grew up, that didn't make her less of a girl, just a rougher girl. Her thoughts ran wild, not even realizing she was getting farther and farther off the subject she started with.

"Come to me flame, let your burning energy free-" She suddenly stopped walking, she recognized this, someone was casting a spell, though she didn't find it alarming and in fact a smile appeared on her face before she turned around to see the scene herself. "Go forth! Fire bomb!" The child yelled as he waved his stick.

The teenager chuckled to herself, it was the few children in the village, playing Eden heroes. Of course when he casted the spell nothing came out except the sound effects he made with his mouth. She remembered when she used to pretend to be a Eden hero as a child. She'd always argue with the other children since she used to change class in the middle of a fight. She'd go from thief to hunter and every class known to Eden. Of course in the world of Eden you could only study one subject. If you decided to use ranged classes, you were stuck with them forever. Bad things happen to those who try learning more than one subject. This wasn't just a rumor for a long time like the trophy incident that was finally realized after a famous person died. No, this was realized long ago. Not only was it nearly impossible for you to grasp another subject when you already had one, but even if you did it had fatal consequences. The body just can't handle the stress of learning the different subjects, the worst consequence is having your organs rupture and taking fifteen days to die while every part of your body is in excruciating pain. The best consequence you can hope for is that you simply pass out and end up tired for the next few days. People who get that lucky never try learning a new subject again.

Of course why would people try this if it's known that no one can do it? Well there is the problem, there were two people in history who were able to do it. One was less known but still popular, his name was ToheedAce. He used melee classes but he was also able to use ranged classes without any trouble. People expected him to do great things, to be famous, but reality isn't always so nice. ToheedAce was killed by a group of monsters, people believe it was legion but no one is sure. The 2nd person was actually the first to do it and the most famous. His name was Kiyoji, he was the first person to learn every class in all of Eden. He was strong, unbeatable, and the only person in history to be named an Eternal Hero. Kiyoji was quite frankly considered a god at the time, no one ever saw him get injured and never once did a band of bandits break past an area he defended. But once again reality is cruel and even Kiyoji died. Well that was never confirmed, Kiyoji himself just one day disappeared. The world was still at peace then. Now the world was threatened by Legion, the largest bandit gang in all of Eden. Since Kiyoji never returned to defend them, everyone assumes he died of old age somewhere, quite possibly settled down. Now people wait for his child to protect them, at least that's one of the rumors people go on about. She could sit for days and talk about the many rumors surrounding Kiyoji.

There was the rumor that Kiyoji was dead. There was the one where he had gotten a woman pregnant and settled down. There was the one that said he was sealed away by legion. There was even one that said Kiyoji was immortal and that he roamed all of Eden in disguise, watching the people as if they were his children. There was even a rumor that said-

"Look it's Jaz!" One of the children's shouts interrupted Jaz's thoughts.

This was far from the first time she got caught up thinking about something involving Kiyoji or other Eden heroes. She looked toward the kids and saw their faces full of admiration, their eyes were practically sparkling with the sight of her. She tried to fight the grin that appeared, but she lost the battle terribly. It was obvious why they admired her so. They were playing Eden heroes. Jaz could use a subject. What were Subject users called? That's right, they are known as Eden Heroes. Jaz was the only Eden hero in the village. She had gained even more admiration from the children when she came home with Mori Mori's trophy implanted on her shoulder. Of course Jaz might have forgotten to mention that she nearly got herself killed trying to solo Herak until Pasco saved her.

"Wow I still can't believe you beat Mori Mori." One of the three children gasped while staring at the trophy on her shoulder.

For once since she's got it she wasn't filled with disgust. She was still grinning like an idiot and even took on a pose without realizing by placing her hands on her hips. She turned to the side so her trophy was in better sight for the children to see. "Mori Mori huh? More like boring, boring." She took on a conceited tone as she made fun of Mori Mori's name. "He was a piece of mushroom cake." She continued in her cocky tone before letting out the most stereotypical conceited laugh she could muster. She couldn't help herself, the only people who were glad she was an Eden hero were the children. She couldn't blame the adults, she had exploded quite a few things in the village practicing her magic over the years.

"Jaz can you please show us that spell again! The one you did yesterday!" One of the boys shouted.

Jaz rolled her eyes with a frown as if it was such a bother to her when all the while she was eating up the praise. "Well I suppose just one demonstration." She rolled her right shoulder while she got ready.

The kids eyes gleamed with anticipation of what she was going to do. They all watched as electricity began to spark in her right hand before it traveled all the way up her shoulder. Her entire arm began to discharge electricity before she took on a destructive smirk and threw her arm forward.

"Lightning Bla-"

"I came to pick you-" A voice interrupted her spell, but soon found itself interrupted as well.

Jaz jumped in shock when she heard the voice. She twirled around and before she had a chance to deny using magic in the village again, a bolt of lightning shot from her right hand and struck the person behind her. She gasped and before she had a chance to check on whoever she had hit, a large tiger stood between her and the downed person. The animal growled at Jaz in defense of its master. Its mouth opened slightly as it growled. It took a step forward while crouching, preparing itself to attack. Jaz's eyes went wide and she found herself frozen.

Before the beast lunged at Jaz and quite possibly took her life, a loud voice broke through the sound of its growling. "Stop Fang!" The voice commanded.

In an instant the beast stopped itself before glaring at Jaz one more time and returning to its master. Jaz watched the beast go over to the person she'd accidently blasted to the ground. She watched him slowly stand up, twitching for a few moments thanks to the electrical attack. She thanked the Eden gods she decided not to use her staff, the extra power it would have given her could have killed him.

"That's quite a welcome for someone who came to pick you up." The man complained.

Jaz looked down at the poor guy she'd accidently blasted. Well he wasn't just some guy to her. His name was Pasco, a hunter that she first met when he rescued her from Herak a few days ago. Pasco was a hafkin so of course despite him being male and a year older then Jaz, he was half her size. She never told him, fearing he might shoot her with an arrow, but she found him to be just the cutest thing she's ever seen. Sure he had muscles and if you made him angry enough he could probably kill you with a glare, but this didn't stop him from being cute to her. His face was still child-like, if anything he looked like a young human boy with a bad attitude.

"Uh..." She was at a loss for words at the moment. Pasco had saved her life a few days ago and she just repaid him by blasting him with lightning. "I'm really sorry, Pasco." She apologized as best she could, but it was obvious to anyone she was more scared of the consequence of being shot with an arrow rather than feeling sorry.

The hafkin eyed her for a moment. Eventually he sighed before closing his eyes and climbing on the back of his large tiger. "Whatever. Just don't do it again." He let her off the hook but his tone implied that if she did it again she was going to regret it for weeks.

She looked Pasco over as he climbed over the tiger. Pasco had two markings on his body that weren't natural. First of all Pasco had a three large scars that went from the middle of his forehead to the right side of his jar. He had gotten that months ago when he attempted to tame the tiger he's riding on now. Pasco being a hunter and all meant he could tame giant cats like tigers or lions. This scar she had seen many times and to be honest that wasn't the one that got her attention this time around.

It was the 2nd marking on his body that got her attention. Right there smack on his chest where his heart was located was a large purple tattoo. The tattoo itself looked like a rock, which wasn't all that cool. Of course if that was all there was to it then she wouldn't be staring at it with such jealousy right now. No that tattoo had a purpose. Pasco had met her when she went to beat Herak and Mori Mori. Not only did Mori Mori drop his trophy, Herak dropped his as well. Herak's trophy was a large purple heart. That same heart was now lodged in place of Pasco's heart. Pasco now had a heart that was indestructible. The thing never beat but it still worked in place of his heart. Jaz would be lying if she said she wasn't jealous.

How could she not be jealous? Pasco got the cool heart that will never be pierced even by the strongest arrow, that and when activated it modified his bones and thus makes him stronger and able to withstand attacks better. Jaz herself on the other hand got the disgusting egg sack stuck on her shoulder for the world to see. So far it hasn't done anything besides twitch on occasion. The worst part about all this is that she was offered Herak's heart when they found it. But no she just had to refuse it. She just had to want the final boss's trophy. If only she could go back in time.

"Your doing it again." She suddenly heard a snapping sound followed by Pasco's manly yet child-like voice.

"Doing what?" She was confused.

Pasco sighed while he shook his head to the side. "You were caught up in thinking about something again. You were just standing there staring into space. It's fucking creepy to be honest with you." Pasco smirked as he said it, knowing full well she hated the word _creepy._

"It's not creepy!" She yelled, instinctively turning to the side to hide her trophy from view. Ever since she got the trophy she's always associated the word creepy and disgusting with it.

Pasco shrugged before continuing. "Whatever. Are you ready to go or what? The kids ran off while you were staring into nothing." He explained while gesturing his hands towards where the kids used to be.

She noticed he was right and sighed. She was missing their praise already. Pasco never praised her. Why would he? He was an Eden hero too and a lot more experienced then she was.

"I just have to turn my key over to Andrew." She informed him before walking away further into the village.

Pasco patted his tiger on the side. She got the gesture and began walking side by side with Jaz. Jaz never questioned why he rode the poor tiger all the time. She had a theory that he did it so he wouldn't feel as short as he was. She also thought it was so he wouldn't have to embarrass himself by asking her to walk slower considering his legs were way too short to match her pace without trouble. Either way she wouldn't ask, lest she want him to sick his tiger on her. She shuddered at the mental image that came to mind.

They walked in silence to their destination. Jaz had wrapped herself up in thought about the journey ahead. First they would go to tranquil hill, then they would take a ship to Aven. Pasco decided to travel with her since he was headed the same way, once they got to Aven she imagined he would ditch her to do whatever it is he wanted to do there. She on the other hand planned on finding the Guild office and seeing if she could contact Inquisitors, it was still her dream to join them even after all these years.

It wasn't until Jaz stood blankly in front of Andrew's house that Pasco snapped her from her thoughts with the snap of his fingers. It only took the few days they knew each other for him to train her to come back to reality with the snap of his fingers. She hated that he was so good at training, it made her feel like she was no better than the tiger he rode. She ignored him when he commented about her being creepy again. She knocked on the wooden door of the house.

They waited a moment. A few more seconds went by before she knocked again and finally received an answer. "I'm coming dagnabbit!" They both heard an old shaky voice come from inside. "Kids these days. No respect for the elderly." The voice continued as they finally heard the footsteps closing in on the door.

Jaz watched the door open to reveal Andrew the town elder. His grey hair hidden under his hat while his purple eyes looked between Jaz and the tiger riding Pasco. His eyes rested on the tiger for a moment before mumbling. "Reminds me of my ex-wife." He shuddered at the memory before looking at Pasco. "Didn't I tell you to put that thing on a leash?!" He yelled at the hafkin.

Pasco raised an eyebrow in confusion, he had never met this man in his life, this was his first time in the village. He only came to pick up Jaz. "Uh... don't worry about it. She wouldn't dare attack anyone who doesn't provoke her, besides she doesn't even like human meat. Now those Yak's just outside of your town are a different story." Pasco explained while he rubbed the top of his tiger's head.

The elder eyed him for a moment before smacking his dry lips. "What's all this nonsense about Yak's telling stories? I said put that giant ball of fur on a leash!" He yelled at Pasco again, this time shooing the tiger away with his hands.

Pasco watched Fang growl before settling her down with a pat on the head. "Listen here old man! I will-"

Before Pasco had a chance to curse out the old man for upsetting his tiger, Jaz stepped in between them and put on a smile to try and calm Andrew down. "Sorry Andrew. We will put him on a leash." She heard Pasco cursing behind her, quite possibly cursing her and Andrew. "I just wanted to return the key to my old house to you. I'm leaving today." She explained slowly and a bit louder for the hard of hearing elder.

The elder nodded his head before holding his hand out. "Well why didn't you say so?"

She pulled her key from her pocket and handed it off to Andrew. "I'm going to get going now. You take care Andrew." Jaz ended the conversation as quickly as possible before the old man angered Pasco any further.

"Oh alright." The old man nodded his head again. He watched them leave for a moment before shouting. "Tell that boy to stop riding my ex wife!"

Jaz swore she heard a vein pop in Pasco's head as he turned toward the elder again. "That is it you senile old fool! I'm going to-"

Before Pasco had a chance to finish his threat he found himself hoisted off his tiger with a hand over his mouth. Jaz easily picked up the small man and quickly ran off with him away from the elder. Fang followed after them after tossing the old man a glare. Jaz didn't stop until she was sure Andrew couldn't hear Pasco's shouting that she figured he might do after being picked up like a child and carried off. In fact... now she was wondering what he was going to do to her. First she shot him with a lightning bolt and now she picked him up like a doll and dragged him off. She stopped just outside the town walls before she let him go. She watched him warily as he fixed his clothes that had gotten ruffled thanks to her.

"That old man is insane. How does this village function with a town head like that?" Pasco complained as he finished straightening his vest and pants.

Much to Jaz's relief he was more angry at Andrew than her. He didn't seem to care to much about her dragging him off. He climbed back on top of his tiger before they began walking once more to the bridge that connected the village's mountain to the rest of Limestone mountain. It wasn't until they were crossing the bridge that Jaz decided to strike up conversation, knowing full well that Pasco wouldn't do it.

"So...the last time we talked I asked about the scar on your face. So how old are you?" She asked while they walked, or rather she walked and he rode his tiger.

"You asked me that before. I told you that I am 18." He answered her monotonously.

"Oh... I'm 17 you know."

"You told me that already." He replied in the same way as before.

"Oh... Well... uh..." She found herself at a loss for words. It wasn't like she was socially awkward. She didn't have any friends but that didn't mean she didn't know how to talk to people. She just didn't know what was ok to ask him about. He always had a glare stuck on his face and as far as she knows he doesn't want her anywhere in his business. She was surprised he answered about the scar the other day. She had accidentally blurted it out after thinking about asking and he answered without much care that Fang had did it before he tamed her.

"What are you going to do in Aven?" Pasco suddenly asked her, sounding a bit more intrigued.

She didn't know if he noticed that she wanted to talk to him but she didn't bother thinking about it now that he had asked something she would just love to answer. "Well I plan on joining a guild! I even-"

She was interrupted when he suddenly began to laugh, he actually startled her when he did. This was the first time he's ever laughed since she met him, and so suddenly too. "What's so funny?" She suddenly looked to her trophy as if it did something. "Did it move again?" She looked disgusting while she thought about it.

"Join a guild huh?" He finally calmed down enough to speak in-between laughs. "You? You can't even use that lightning blast of yours in an instant. You'd be dead in a week." He finished laughing, but a smirk remained on his face.

"...Well that was harsh." She definitely wasn't expecting that reaction from him, it was also the first time someone called her weak.

His smirk faded when he saw how much he'd hurt her with a sentence he blurted out before thinking how to word it. "Look... in all seriousness the guild business is ruthless. Guilds are nothing but organized crime gangs. They extort money from cities they protect, they treat new people like test subjects and they even kill each other. Guilds compete for dominance over Eden, it's not surprising to see two guilds cross paths and suddenly start going at each others throats." He explained to her.

"I'm not naive... I know that some guilds are corrupt-"

"Not some guilds, all guilds" He interrupted.

"No!" She suddenly raised her voice, yet it didn't surprise him in the least. He continued staring at her with the glare that had somehow naturally fixed itself on his face at some point in time. "I met a guild that had real Eden heroes. They didn't just carry the title because they could use subjects. They were real heroes, they saved people without pay and risked their lives. Don't ever group them with the rest of the corrupted." She gave him a glare of her own, but anyone with eyes could see Pasco was a lot better at it.

They continued staring at each other in silence until Pasco broke eye contact first by looking ahead once they'd finished crossing the bridge. There was nothing ahead but a few harmless mushroids. They would continue going straight through the grassy plains until the mountain steered to the left into the Jelly's side of the mountain.

Jaz kind of regretted snapping at him. He was traveling with her after all, there was no point in arguing and possibly splitting up. It wasn't like he was a good friend of hers where she could just argue and when they cool off they are back to normal. She only met him a few days ago. She also didn't want to travel alone, she would still be in the village if he hadn't told her he was going to Aven and she quickly jumped on the opportunity of going with someone. She hated to admit it but she had never traveled alone and she was scared to. There were more than a hundred ways to die while traveling and she'd much rather go with someone who seemed experienced in traveling. Of course another part of her told her to let him leave. Why should she travel with someone who grouped her heroes with villains? Sadly though, self preservation was winning against her own pride.

"What's the name?" Pasco suddenly broke the silence.

She let her eyes wander to him to see he was no longer glaring the way he was just earlier. He was back to his normal scowl that was fixed on his face. "The name?" She raised an eyebrow after she asked.

"Of the guild. The one you want to join." He answered.

She turned her eyes back to the road ahead. "Inquisitors." She caught it from her peripheral vision, the sight of Pasco sighing softly after hearing the name. "Have you heard of them?" She continued, wondering why he reacted that way.

"Heard of them? How can I not have?" He muttered, yet Jaz still heard it.

"What do you mean?" She felt a knot in her stomach for some reason. She only imagined that if he'd heard something that it was all good things. So why did he not seem impressed at all?

He sighed again before looked to Jaz. "You sure you want to know what I've heard? You might lose all that respect for your _heroes_." He stressed the last word. She nodded her head which prompted him to continue. "Inquisitors. Guild leader is Midgie, a hafkin. This is the guild you're talking about right?" He looked to Jaz just to see her nod once more. "I'm assuming you haven't heard considering how much you deem this guild as heroes, but they are one of the corrupted guilds I was talking about." He finished, waiting on her next reaction.

She didn't nod this time but she did scowl at him a bit. "What are you talking about?"

Pasco looked ahead again before continuing. "Inquisitors is just as much of a bandit guild as the rest. Just like other guilds there are plenty of rumors surrounding them. They say Inquisitors jump other guilds on the road and murder them. They steal their money and anything of value and leave the bodies to rot. There is even a rumor that they tried to take down a Game Master." He finished, deciding that this was enough to get his point across, he could've continued naming things.

Jaz didn't know when she started doing it but now her mouth was hung open in shock. This was all ridiculous to her. Why would Inquisitors steal money from people on the road? Why would they attack different guilds? And attacking a Game Master? That was just insane. Game Masters were like the leaders of the guilds and armies. They were the best of the best, they had to be in order to keep Eden under control. Why would Inquisitors challenge not only some of the strongest people in Eden, but their bosses?

"Inquisitor also has one of... _those_ in their guild." He continued talking about the guild and for some reason Jaz detected fear in his voice.

Now Jaz had to know what scared the scariest person she's ever met. Well aside from Krow, but that was ten years ago. "One of _those_?" She asked innocently.

He visibly shuddered which confused Jaz. "Yes. You know what i'm talking about." He watched Jaz continue to stare at him confused. He sighed before finally confessing what he was talking about. "A warlock." He shuddered again as if it was cold outside.

Jaz rolled her eyes. Unlike his earlier comments on the guild that she could only gape at, this was something she found to be just downright silly. "You've got to be kidding. I thought you of all people wouldn't be afraid of that silly superstition." She smirked at him, she couldn't believe Pasco believed the superstition associated with warlocks.

Even Jaz knew about the warlock superstition. Warlocks were a rare class to see. Warlock is the only class that requires you to study and use dark magic. If that was all then they wouldn't be so frowned upon and feared. Warlock magic was powerful and deadly, to the victim and even sometimes the user. It was practically taboo to use the class.

"I can't believe your one of those people who fear warlocks." Jaz was still in disbelief of Pasco's reaction.

"...You're not?" He gave her an amazed yet confused and pitying look.

"Of course not. Warlock is just another magic class. People only fear it because the power that comes with it is dark and dangerous. In fact I want to be use the power of a warlock one day." Jaz admitted proudly.

Pasco blinked at this while his mind processed what she had just said. "You? Become a warlock?" That's when he started to laugh out loudly just like earlier. Laughing twice in a day when he had never gave the slightest snicker since they met. Needless to say it freaked Jaz out just a little bit, but mostly it offended her since each time he was laughing at her.

Jaz scowled and looked straight ahead, glaring at a mushroid that seemed to be watching her despite having no eyes. "You got a problem with that?" She said it bitterly to Pasco but it was the mushroid she stared at.

"It's just that warlocks are powerful and live on the dark side of life. They make corrupt guilds look like a candy shop or something." He continued laughing about Jaz's desire to become one.

Jaz didn't know what to point out first. The fact that warlocks don't live a dark life, they just control it. Or maybe the fact that she found his analogy to make no sense whatsoever. She decided to point out the fact that warlocks aren't as evil as people think, but something else caught her attention and successfully distracted her. She noticed the mushroid she was staring at began to wiggle its arms in a wave-like motion while bobbing up and down. Was it...dancing?

"Do they always do that?" Jaz suddenly asked without realizing.

"What? Warlocks? Yeah they always live on the dark side. I hear even Game Masters avoid warlocks." Pasco continued on the topic he assumed she meant.

Jaz shook her head and realized he didn't know what she meant. She decided to ignore it. They passed the mushroid and she swore it continued to watch her as they passed, as if it was expecting something.

_Its looking at me... it loves me... my child..._

"What are you doing?" She suddenly heard Pasco call for her after snapping his fingers.

Jaz suddenly found herself still standing near the mushroid. A few other mushroids had gathered near or were beginning to come closer, like curious children. She shook her head before turning to see Pasco was a good distance away.

"But I was just next to you..." Jaz whispered to herself.

"Stop playing with the mushroids and lets go." Pasco called again, this time growing impatient.

Jaz nodded before looking to the mushroids again. She watched a few begin to repeat the dance she had seen one do earlier. She took a few steps back slowly, as if the mushroids were going to attack her. When they did nothing besides stare in her direction, at least she assumes they were since they have no eyes, she jogged to catch up to Pasco. She turned to them one last time to see the mushroids continue to curiously watch them. She shrugged it off and continued her journey. Mushroids were a curious yet wary species by nature and they never attacked unless provoked. She didn't have to be worried about them but for some reason their behavior was odd. She never saw them do that dance before or come that close to a human even if they were curious.

"You like mushroids?" Pasco asked after she looked back at them.

She looked to the hafkin for a moment before staring straight ahead again. "I guess so. They're a peaceful group of monsters." She answered.

"Peaceful? I thought they attacked people and other animals in large groups." Pasco was confused by the answer she had given.

Jaz only shook her head. "They only do things like that if Mori Mori is involved. Mori Mori is born every two decades. That's why I was out there to kill him when you arrived and saved me from Herak." Jaz explained.

"Born every two decades? Thought we killed him?"

"Mori Mori is just the name for what she is, not her actual name. Think of her as the queen of mushroids. An egg is lain that contains a queen every two decades. Mushroids are harmless unless their queen is in danger or she orders them to hurt others." Jaz watched Pasco open his mouth but she quickly continued explaining before he had a chance to ask anything. "And no we don't know who or what lays this egg. It just hatches somewhere and Mori Mori appears in the same place generally. When she is first born she's in the dungeon, but of course she will leave the dungeon after awhile." Jaz finished.

Pasco closed his mouth after having his question answered before he could ask. He found it odd that no one knew where the egg came from or why Mori Mori appeared in the same spot every single time. Well it wasn't his problem, he didn't live in limestone.

Pasco had nothing else to say on the subject but a question came to Jaz's mind that she never did ask. "Why were you in the dungeon the day you saved me?" She asked another question innocently.

"I saw you go in." Pasco answered in his trademark monotonous tone.

"You did?"

"Yeah."

She pondered this for a moment before a smile came across her face. "Wait so you saw me go in?" He nodded without looking at her. "So you came in after me because you were worried?"

She watched Pasco go through a display of about three different emotions at the same time, anger, embarrassment, and shyness. "W-what do you mean worried? I don't get worried. I just didn't want you on my conscious if you died." He grumbled, hiding the blush that crept across his face.

"I thought you were this cold unfeeling hunter. I didn't know you cared." Jaz continued smiled, not knowing the embarrassment she was giving him as she walked closer to him.

"I am cold! I didn't care! My conscious would just kill me if I let you die after you saved me ok?! Consider the favor returned and don't expect another!" Pasco yelled, getting her to back away a bit, all to his relief though as he wanted so badly to hide the emotions she just put him through, at least the ones that weren't associated with rage.

"What?" Jaz stood surprised, not from his attitude of course, she was used to this. "After I saved you? I've... never met you before?" She asked the question slowly as if he was her crazy and senile town head Andrew.

Pasco's face softened and she swore she saw an emotion come across his face for a split second that she didn't know he could feel. She saw hurt glaze his features for just a moment. "Forget it." He went back to looking ahead and his scowl turned back into the normal glare he wore.

"Forget it? Now wait a minute. When have I met you?" She continued, determined to get the answer out of him.

Pasco felt his heart drop for a second, an unfamiliar emotion rose through him. He shook it off and glared her way. "Look just forget it. It clearly wasn't important to you." He tried finishing this.

Jaz glared back at him. What was the big deal? "That's why I want to know! Now I feel like a jerk because i've forgotten. If you would just remind me then I wouldn't feel so bad about this. It's not every day someone saves my life and I can't even remember that we had met before." She stepped closer to him again, still keeping her eyes locked on his.

Pasco felt that unfamiliar emotion rise again. He hated whatever it was and he was determined to stop feeling it right now. "I said drop it." He hissed quietly.

"What is your problem?! Why can't you just remind me of when we-"

"Forget it!" He snapped. He yelled so loud that the tiger he rode had completely stopped along with Jaz. "If you don't remember then good for you! It meant nothing to you so it wasn't important! Now drop it unless you want to walk to Tranquil hill alone!" He growled at her.

They stood there staring into each other's eyes. Pasco stood there with his eyes full of hate... while Jaz looked into his with a glare. But he saw right through that facade. He had scared her and he knew it. He quickly looked away and patted his tiger, gesturing for her to continue walking. Fang understood and continued walking. Jaz stood still for a moment. She honestly felt scared just then. It wasn't just because Pasco himself was threatening despite his size, she was afraid he would leave her alone. She didn't want to travel alone when she knew nothing about the world outside of limestone. Eventually she got moving again on her own, now trailing behind Pasco and his tiger by a few feet instead of walking side by side. Pasco never said a word and she followed his example, afraid her next words could send him walking off on his own to Aven and leaving her behind. So the two went in silence to their destination.

_A two day walk to Tranquil hill_... she thought to herself. 

Authors notes: And there is chapter 2. Boring I know. This chapter just consisted of introducing Jaz the young magician and her traveling companion Pasco the hunter. (You can count his tiger, Fang if you want.) Hope you enjoyed.


	3. Chapter 3

authors notes: Ok last chapter I kept referring to the dungeon with Herak and Mori Mori as the "Dungeon". Not going to lie... I was too lazy to look up what the name was while I was writing. The dungeon is called Angor Quarry. Sorry about that and here goes chapter 3.

disclaimer: I don't own Eden Eternal.

chapter 3

Jaz didn't consider herself to be out of shape, she trained in magic every day. She practiced casting her spells so many times a day that she was almost thrown out of the village a few times for setting something on fire. That's right, she practiced casting all the time, learning the spells, memorizing the words to go with them, she even practiced on the yaks that she would hunt for the village to eat.

_Oh who am I kidding? None of that had to do with physical training._

Jaz cursed herself. She just had to become a magician. Sure spells were fun but her legs were killing her. She had been traveling with Pasco for hours. She didn't realize the simple act of walking could tire her out. She was definitely saving money for a mount when she joined Inquisitors.

_I wonder how much those dragon mounts cost... probably expensive._

_ Mothers of Eden why didn't I train my legs?!_

_ First I blow it with Pasco by arguing and now my legs hurt and i'm tired._

_ Am I being punished?_

_ Why me?_

_ It was just a stupid argument..._

_ Why'd he get so mad anyway? _

_ If we met in the past then why didn't he ever say anything?_

_ Why am I even thinking about this?_

_ Mothers of Eden... I am so freaking hungry right now..._

_ Should I ask Pasco to stop?_

_ No... I'd upset him and he'd leave... can't let him ditch me out here..._

_ For the love of Eden! Why did he get so angry?! I just don't get it..._

_ Ugh... Look at me talking to myself in my head. That's right Jaz... your insane. _

Jaz continued questioning herself mentally. Ever since the argument neither she nor Pasco spoke a word and just walked in silence. Jaz was so preoccupied in her thoughts that she didn't even realize she was slowly being steered off course by Pasco. Pasco on the other hand knew full well what he was doing and began to look around the area. He looked back to see Jaz was following silently with her head held down. She was obviously lost in thought. He almost snapped his fingers and called to her until he remembered the argument they had earlier that day. He felt a pang of guilt course through him at the memory of the glare she gave him. The glare that was obviously hiding the fear he invoked in her. He turned back forward with a quiet sigh before continuing to scan the area. Eventually he gestured for his tiger to stop. He got off her and gave her a order to keep watch. She obeyed and soon the tiger left him alone with Jaz who began looking around after noticing they had stopped.

"We'll rest here for tonight." Pasco finally broke the silence between them. He was gesturing to a large rock a few feet away from them.

Jaz opened her mouth to say something but soon it closed. She didn't know why. He finally said something which broke the silence and she couldn't say anything. She couldn't get the memory of him suddenly shouting at her out of her memory, the hate filled eyes he shot at her. She didn't realize she could make him snap like that and she didn't want to do it again. She was lucky he didn't walk away then and there. She saw no reason to press her luck twice. She only wanted to ask why they were stopping now when the sun was just starting to set. Not that she was complaining, she was glad she didn't have to walk anymore today.

Jaz simply walked by him toward the rock, keeping her mouth closed and hoping that would keep her traveling company close as well. Jaz didn't catch the slight disappointment that worked its way into Pasco's facial expression when he watched her close her mouth when she had intended to speak. Pasco followed her to the rock and began to get ready for the night.

Jaz watched Pasco come over to the rock with her. She expected him to say something again but instead he took a mini backpack from his clip just like hers and pressed the red button on it that returned it to normal size. She watched him shift through a few items before taking out a bundle of arrows. She wondered why since he already had his bow slung around his shoulder and a few arrows in the holster on his back. She watched him place the arrows into the holster before walking off in a seemingly random direction.

A few minutes went by and Jaz was beginning to let paranoia cloud her mind. She wondered why he hadn't come back. Why did he leave in the first place? Should she have followed? Did he just need to be alone? She even wondered where Fang was, she never noticed when Fang left. One question stood out above all the others though, one that played in her mind over and over.

_Did he...leave me?_

She shook her head at the thought. Why would he leave? She didn't do anything after the argument. If he was going to leave because of that he would've done it already. She assured herself over and over. The fact that he left his backpack behind with her convinced her that he was coming back. Now she was worried though. If he didn't ditch her then why hadn't he come back? Did he get hurt? Did a monster get him? Did a group of bandits get him? What if he-

Her thoughts were interrupted when she suddenly saw Pasco coming up from behind the large rock. Without even realizing it she had run up and was staring down at the little hafkin. "Where did you go?!" Jaz suddenly yelled, not angry, not surprised, she just yelled.

Pasco was stunned for a moment. He thought she was never going to speak another word. He felt relieved once she finally said something, even if she was yelling at him right now. "Uh...firewood." He stated while holding up the bundle of firewood he was carrying as proof of his whereabouts.

Jaz's eyes glanced at the firewood before locking with his again. Now she was stunned.

_Oh way to go Jaz... You just yelled at him... I'm so stupid!_

"Oh..." She bit her lip while she thought of what to say. "Well... you could've told me. I thought maybe you got lost... or something." She quickly lied before returning to where she was standing before.

Pasco watched her return before continuing to place the wood in the middle of the initial area they planned to rest. He grabbed a few stones that were around the large rock to place around the fire. He noticed while he was grabbing the stones, but Jaz has watched his every move since he got back. He wondered why she was staring at him so hard. Could she have been worried about him...?

He quickly discarded the thought. Worried about him? Why would she be worried? She didn't remember when they first met... It was then that he felt that feeling again, the one he didn't recognize. What was this stupid feeling? Why did he have to feel it whenever he thought about her not remembering him.

"So you have to put stones around the base..." He heard Jaz mumbling to herself.

He instantly whirled around after hearing her voice. He watched her nearly jump at his reaction which invited that feeling to course through him again. "What was that?" He asked her, hoping she didn't notice him fighting with whatever feeling this was.

"...I was just watching...and learning." She explained, finding her voice lower than normal.

Pasco turned his eyes to the wood before looking at her again. "You don't know how to make fire?" He asked her with surprise.

"Of course I can!" Jaz defended herself quickly. She seemed to forget that she was trying not to raise her voice with him. "I mean..." Now it was lower again, only it wasn't because of him, rather she was embarrassed about what she was going to say. "I can cast fire... why should I learn how to create it the hard way." She finished. She chose to cast her gaze on a mushroid she saw in the distance. It was hiding behind a few bushes, possibly looking at them with curiosity.

"Magic huh? Your right." He said. Jaz turned to see he was still looking at her. "For a magician I bet using magic is way faster. Could you maybe help me out here?" He asked her, stepping aside so she could join him.

Jaz stood there blinking for a moment. Was he not as angry as she thought? He seemed to be talking to her normally. She decided to take her chances of continuing to talk to him, but that didn't mean she wouldn't try being careful. "Sure." She answered while walking over and kneeling next to the wood. "What do am I supposed to do?" She looked to Pasco for answers.

Her eyes widened a bit when she saw him chuckle at the question. He gestured toward the wood. "Just... light it on fire." He honestly didn't know how to make it anymore clearer.

She wanted to slap herself. Of course he wanted her to start the fire since she could use magic, he didn't need to start the fire from scratch so long as she was there. She stood up and backed away from the wood a bit. She closed her eyes and began to focus while she clenched her hands into fists, she had grown far too used to clutching her staff to stop this reaction whenever she cast a spell.

"Come to me fire." She began to chant and little balls of fire formed around her and gravitated to her. "Burn away my enemy in your fiery blaze." She continued chanting, the fire balls began to form above her head into a larger ball of fire.

Pasco noticed this and raised his hands defensively while he spoke. "Hey wait..." He asked her calmly, hoping he wouldn't have a repeat of the lightning blast.

Sadly though his soft voice didn't break her from her chanting as she finished the spell. "Shoot forth! Fire bomb!" She shouted.

The ball of fire shot straight toward the pile of wood. Pasco's eyes widened just as the small explosion was set off from the fire bomb. He jumped back but his reflexes were to slow as a few flames from the explosion struck his clothes, setting part of them on fire. By the time Jaz noticed what she had done, Pasco was attempting to put the flame out by jumping around in panic while slapping away at the flames.

"Holy Mothers of Eden Eternal!" He shouted while slapping away at the flames.

Jaz quickly ran over but instead of helping smack away at the flames she panicked along with him. She also began jumping up and down unaware of what to do. "Just slap it! Go! Slap it!" She shouted her terrible advice to him. And like a fool he listened to her and continued his dance while smacking himself like a spider had gotten onto him. It wasn't until after he used a few curse words in the hafkin language that she finally remembered something important. "Wait! You got to fall on the floor and roll around!" She yelled at him.

"What good will that do?!" He shouted.

"Just do it!" She yelled before pushing him onto the floor in panic.

He more or less listened to her advice. He was still attempting to slap away and dance around, only he was on the ground and began to roll and bounce off the ground. Eventually, thanks to him rolling, the flames died out and the two fools were both out of breath from the sad display. Jaz was more winded than he was and she wasn't even set on fire.

After a moment of collecting themselves, Pasco looked toward Jaz who was still breathing heavily. A smile he couldn't fight suddenly formed on his face and she rose a brow at him, wondering why in the name of Eden he was smiling after he almost scared her to death.

"Funny how you're more tired than the person who was on fire." He continued smiling at her.

She was about to say something before he suddenly started laughing. Ok that was the third time he laughed today, she was sure something was wrong with him. But she didn't care because for some reason she found herself smiling and soon laughing afterwards along with him.

"Oh yeah? Well at least I'm not the survival expert who can make fire but doesn't know what to do if he ever caught on fire." She continued laughing, unable to stop herself once she realized just how ridiculous this situation had been.

It took them well over a minute to calm down. By the time they finished Jaz had found herself sitting close the hafkin who was still sprawled out on the ground. She looked down toward him and noticed his eyes had locked on hers. He was still breathing a bit hard from laughing. His black hair had become disheveled during his panic earlier and the laughing fit. His green eyes stared into hers with an unreadable expression.

"Your eyes are pretty." He suddenly confessed, as if he'd spoken what was meant to be a mere thought out loud on accident.

Jaz's brows raised. "Pretty?" That was the first time someone complimented her eyes. She had heard plenty of things about them, but most of them involved people being surprised to see someone with red eyes.

The hafkin's face warmed up the moment he realized he said that out loud. He quickly sat up before picking himself up off the ground and dusting off his clothes. "I just mean it's the first time I've seen red eyes is all. I didn't know humans could get it." He quickly explained.

Jaz felt a little disappointment, that was pretty much what everyone said. She didn't exactly take it as a compliment. She'd never admit it but it made her feel different when someone pointed it out. She already felt different since she was the only Eden hero in the village. "Oh..." Jaz simply said, obviously disappointed with his interpretation of what he meant.

Pasco heard the disappointment and now he felt bad. He ignored this feeling and looked toward the firewood that was now either burnt or just plain ashes thanks to Jaz. He began walking away in search of more firewood but before he completely left her sight he stopped and turned to her. "Uh... I'll be back in a bit. I'm going to get more wood." Pasco informed her.

He watched her nod with a slight smile. He could tell she was happy he informed her this time. That made him feel... happy too. He felt another blush coming on and before she had a chance to see it he walked away behind the rock and out of her sight. As he walked he swore he felt Herak's heart beat for a moment when he saw her smiling at him.

"Stupid..." He said after a few minutes of walking, well out of hearing range of Jaz. "What was she smiling about? Why did she yell at me for leaving for a few minutes earlier? Why'd she look so cute when she bit her lip?" On that final question he stopped walking with wide eyes. "Cute? No...Well sure she is good looking, nothing wrong with admitting a girl is good looking." He assured himself and continued walking toward a small group of trees. "Ok she's more than good looking... she's pretty... Nothing wrong with finding a girl pretty." He nodded his head as he continued. "Yes very pretty... So why didn't I just admit I thought her eyes were pretty? Why did she have to look so disappointed when I corrected myself." He suddenly shook his head, running his hands through his black hair when he was finished. "Fuck it. I just won't think about it anymore. It's just hormones confusing me, that's all. I've been alone for as long as I can remember so I'm flustered over a pretty girl, yeah that's all." He nodded a final time before discarding his thoughts as he began picking up branches that had fallen from the trees.

By the time he finished gathering more wood, Fang had appeared by his side again. He turned to greet her but instead he glared down at what she had in her mouth. She was carrying a rainbow angelly, a monster that resembled a large jellyfish. They had evolved to the point where they could live outside of water once they became adults. They typically stayed in the water though. That was the problem, Fang wouldn't bother killing it if it stayed in the water. Pasco eyed the monster and leaned a hand forward to touch it. Fang warned him with a growl, he quickly snatched his hand away and watched Fang. Pasco knew Fang long enough to understand a warning and an intent to harm that came with her growls. Fang lowered her head and let the tentacles touch the ground. Pasco widened his eyes when he saw the tentacles burn the grass with a spark of electricity.

"Great...just what we need." Pasco groaned. "Is the nest close?" Pasco looked to Fang.

Surprisingly the tiger seemed to understand him and dropped the angelly before looking to something behind Pasco. He turned around and noticed the large body of water that separated this area from Cerilia forest that was located just beyond the water. Pasco had planned to cross the shallow parts of water where there was more land and go straight into Cerilia forest. Now he was thinking against it, he didn't want to take chances like that. In fact he figured he might as well move camp even farther away, they weren't close to the water at all, but Fang found a angelly way out here. It never hurt to be safe.

Pasco climbed atop Fang, accidentally dropping a few sticks once he did. Fang picked them up in her mouth and reared her head back for him to take them. He thanked his tiger and promised to rub her when everything was set at camp. Pasco watched his tiger purr at the thought.

Pasco journeyed back to where they had planned to set up camp. He was going to have to tell Jaz they needed to move away and take a different road instead of crossing the lake. He would have done all of this if he wasn't attacked by Jaz the moment he turned the corner around the rock. Jaz suddenly rushed over to him and nearly knocked him off Fang while she snatched away the sticks he was carrying, or at least she snatched a few and made him drop the rest.

"Whoa- what- Jaz?!" Was all he could say before the girl ran away with the sticks back to where they had attempted making fire once.

Pasco barely managed to stay atop his tiger during her random assault. He was going to say something but he found himself opening and closing his mouth unable to produce a set of words to describe just how confused he was about what just happened. Instead he watched as Jaz chanted something under her breath. Suddenly a few flames appeared and began to float around her. He noticed she was using Fire bomb again. Wait a second... isn't that how they lost the wood the first time?

"Jaz?!" Pasco shouted, jumping off his tiger.

Before Pasco could stop her, she took one of the sticks and touched it to one of the flames surrounding her, successfully lighting the piece of wood. The flames soon died out without her concentrating on them to form into a ball of fire. He watched her put the stick into the pile with the rest slowly. It didn't take long before the fire spread and Jaz successfully created a small fire. Pasco saw she had already rearranged the rocks back into a circle before he had gotten back. He smirked and went to tell her good job but he soon found out this girl could praise herself just fine without anyone's help.

"Did you see that?!" She suddenly shouted and turned to Pasco, her eyes beaming with joy and pride. "I made a fire! I did it! Me!" She took her eyes away and back to the fire. "You thought you were so hard to create! But you never met Jaz Remills, soon to be most famous person in all of Eden!" She shouted to the fire as if it didn't believe her.

Pasco stared at her as she continued to stroke her ego. He sighed at the sight without realizing she put a smile on his face from her display. "Nice job, Jaz the magician." Pasco managed to get her attention with that. "Oh no, I meant Jaz the greatest magician in all of Eden." He continued with the sarcasm.

Jaz, who rarely received praise for displaying her magic, didn't catch the sarcasm. "I wouldn't say best..." Her hands found their way to her hips for some reason. "I mean I could be the best you know? Just give me a few months or so." Jaz ended up with her chin higher than usual, eating up the praise with a grin.

Pasco shook his head, not realizing that she was actually being serious instead of playing along with his sarcasm. Pasco went over to his bag and began to shift through it. He supposed he should start cooking. The sun would set soon and they hadn't eaten all day. It wasn't until he found the pot that he remembered he was supposed to be moving camp.

"Hey Jaz, we have to-" He stopped mid-sentence when he turned and saw Jaz was kneeling near the fire, admiring the work she'd done. She was lost in the flames. Pasco found himself staring at her, her wide red eyes staring so innocently at the flames. Her amber hair somewhat in her face. He didn't notice until now, but she had taken the ponytail out of her head while he was away. It wasn't until her eyes glanced up at him that he quickly went back to searching through his bag. "Do you mind if I start up some mushroom soup?" He asked her, hoping she wouldn't ask why he was looking her way.

"Mushroom soup...?" For some reason Jaz felt sick, the idea of eating Mushroom soup was disgusting. She had eaten it before and it was fine, but for some reason she wasn't in the mood. "Is there nothing else?" She asked while holding her hand to her mouth, almost barfing at the mention of Mushroom soup.

"Uh well... there's... well there's... uh no." He admitted shamefully as he finished rummaging through his backpack. Mushroom soup was cheap and took a long time to expire, it was perfect for traveling. He never expected to be entertaining a guest when he bought all of this.

He turned to Jaz to see she was unclasping her mini backpack from her belt. She pushed the button and returned it to normal size before she began rummaging through it. He watched her begin throwing things out in search of something. An umbrella, an assortment of scrunchies for her ponytail, a pair of daggers, a mace, a flimsy shield, a small hatchet and even a bow. It wasn't until she began tossing out pairs of underwear that he turned away in embarrassment.

"Why do you pack so many useless things?" Pasco groaned, wondering how in the name of Eden she managed to pack that much into her bag in the first place.

Jaz stopped searching and turned to Pasco with that innocent look of hers. "This isn't normal?" She asked with a tone that matched her face.

Pasco warily looked her way. When he saw that he could see her face without catching sight of the underwear she had thrown he decided stay like that. "Of course not." He said it as if it obvious.

She looked at all the items she threw. "Oh... What should I get rid of then?" She asked.

"First of all those little circle thingies." He waved a finger toward one of her Scrunchies.

"But I use them to tie my hair up..." Jaz pouted.

"One is fine. You don't need so many." He explained.

Jaz sighed. Again she didn't consider herself a girly-girl at all. She definitely viewed herself as a tomboy. But she liked her scrunchies. She sighed sadly as she decided to just dump her entire bag out. "Ok what all should I keep?" Jaz asked, still searching for the item she was looking for in the first place.

She finally spotted what she wanted by the time Pasco turned around and stared at the pile of junk she'd lain out. Jaz smiled as she had found a container with a piece of apple pie inside. She quickly opened the container and sat back against the large rock as she began eating it with her hands. Pasco on the other hand was sorting through her items. Never in his life had he seen a person who was so ill-prepared. He was tempted to ask her if she packed her whole house. Some stuff he could understand her putting it in their while thinking it was necessary. The umbrella for example he found unnecessary but he could see why she thought it was. He figured if it rained all she had to do was hide under a tree for awhile or something. Rain never bothered him unless he was trying to set up camp, which again he could do under a tree or something.

What he really couldn't believe were all the extra weapons. The hatchet he understood because she would probably use it for chopping wood or something. He decided to leave that in the necessary pile, but the sword, dagger, mace, shield, every other weapon was unnecessary. Why was she carrying all this anyway? He sighed before pushing it into the unnecessary pile. He continued looking through the items until he picked up a white cylinder. He stared at it in confusion, wondering again why she brought something that served no purpose. Of course he didn't know what it was and was attempting to figure out its purpose as he twirled it between his fingers while his eyes searched for the purpose of this device.

Jaz finally noticed what he was holding and stared at him while she finished chewing enough pie to talk. "Never seen a tampon before?" Jaz asked, not embarrassed in the slightest at what he had found.

"A... tampon? What purpose does this cylinder hold?" Pasco asked a question he was going to soon regret.

By the time Jaz explained what a period was, needless to say he was staring at her in shock, his mouth slightly open and his eyes wide. She was surprised to learn from him that hafkin females didn't get periods. It seemed to be something only human females got out of all the races. Jaz was now, for the first time in her life, wishing she was born a different race. Pasco eventually prompted her to continue about the cylinder that he was still holding in his hands. By the time she finished explaining what was inside the cylinder, Pasco was just staring at her with his eyebrow raised. Seeing that she had to put two and two together for him she explained the purpose of the pad. She didn't have to explain anything else as Pasco seemed to finally understand. She watched him jerk suddenly when he realized he was still holding it, he practically slung the cylinder in the air as he quickly stood up and began wiping his hands desperately against his clothes. Jaz found his reaction quite amusing and decided against telling him that she discarded the cylinders after using them, letting him believe she had used that one.

By the time she finished stuffing her face with pie she decided to let him know she discarded the ones she used. It took a moment to sink in but he seemed to understand and calmed down afterwards. They went back to sorting through her items. Pasco was wary of any item he didn't recognize after the incident. She nearly gave him a heart attack when she tossed a package of napkins at him, knowing full well that he would make a different assumption as to what they were used for. Eventually after a few pranks by Jaz and a few arguments over what was necessary for traveling between towns, Jaz stared down at the few items he allowed her to keep. Her hatchet, two cans of her favorite beans, her dagger, three pairs of underwear out of the twenty two that she brought, and finally five bottled waters.

"I'll die with only this." Jaz continuing pouting.

"Since we can resupply in tranquil hill you wouldn't die from what you have now. If you were traveling further then you probably would. You should only pack things that are necessary for the trip." Pasco groaned as he looked away from the underwear in front of them. "I still don't see why you need three pairs extra. One extra pair is all you need."

"No! I can't believe you even got me down to three. I refuse to travel with just one change of underwear." Jaz glared at him, wondering if he really only traveled with one extra pair.

Pasco glared right back but soon his eyes widened and he took on a pitying look. "Well... I suppose with your... human female problem that a change is necessary more often." He looked like he was going to be sick.

It took Jaz a few seconds to process what he meant. "What?! No that's not why!" Jaz growled. She wasn't embarrassed about him finding a tampon or even explaining the process, it was embarrassing when he accused her of accidentally soiling her underwear that she became embarrassed.

By the time they finished arguing over the items it was nightfall. Pasco had lost his appetite and Jaz seemed content with her pie. Jaz was alone with Pasco again, Fang was sent to patrol the area before coming back and standing on guard duty. Jaz felt a bit useless to be honest. Pasco would rest for a few hours and then he would swap with Fang over watch duty. Jaz offered to help but Pasco insisted she just sleep. She could tell from his tone that he didn't believe she would be able to stay awake during her shift. She didn't bother arguing because maybe he was right. She had passed out many times while staying up late and studying magic. She'd find herself sprawled out on the floor or at her desk with a book without realizing when she fell asleep.

She sighed as she watched the wood burn in the flame. She took it upon herself to feed wood to the fire. She knew that Pasco had taught fang how to do it and that she would likely do it when she was back, but Jaz wanted to feel helpful somehow. She sighed again as she put another stick into the fire. She laid against the ground and cursed herself for not bringing a pillow.

_Knowing Pasco he would've said it was useless._ She thought bitterly.

She looked over to Pasco to see him asleep. He was using his backpack for a pillow. He looked peaceful while he slept. His eyebrows curved slightly and gave him a slight glare as he slept.

_So he always looks just a little menacing... _She thought to herself.

She continued staring at the sleeping hafkin before using his idea to sleep on her backpack. She got up and walked over to her backpack and plopped her head down on it. The ground was hard but at least her head felt a little better. Pasco helped her pack things back up, he told her that she should sell most of those things if she plans on traveling a lot.

She didn't plan on traveling a lot, she just wanted to get to Aven and see about Inquisitors. She hoped they would let her in. She became a magician and waited 10 years for this chance. They were a nice guild, surely they would let her in.

_You? Join a guild? You'd be dead in a week._

Pasco's words echoed in her mind. She shrugged them off however. What did he know? He wasn't in a guild. Even if she died in Inquisitors then she at least knew that she would die trying to save someone since that's what Inquisitors do. Now that she thought about it... why were they called Inquisitors? She thought Eden Heroes would fit better as a guild name. It was corny but she felt it was perfect. She subconsciously began digging into her pocket for the photo she carried. She pulled it out and sat up so she could see it better with the light from the flame. She stared at the five heroes in the photo that saved her life. She would become like them. She was young but she knew she would catch up.

_Young...? Wait a minute._

Jaz's eyes widened as she stared at the picture. All of these years of staring at this photo, how had she not noticed this? All five of her heroes were young. All these years she just naturally assumed they were adults. But now that she really looked... she could tell three of them were younger then she was now. Sunye, Viceciple, and Haseo couldn't have been older than 15 in this picture. Norn was probably 17 or 18. Midgie was the only one that Jaz just couldn't make out. Her body was developed but that didn't tell her how old Midgie could've been in this picture. The only thing it told her was that Midgie was at least 12 years old. Hafkins barely age as they get older, thus why even the adult hafkins look like human children. Guild leaders could be whatever age they wanted to, as long as they proved they had the strength to establish one.

Jaz sighed again. "Great... the only thing I had going for me was that I was young and already a Eden Hero. But it turns out my heroes were stronger then I am now and they were younger." Jaz shook her head as she put the photo away carefully like always.

She tried not to let it get her down but how could she not? Maybe Pasco was right. Maybe she was too weak to join a guild and expect to live long enough to make a difference. Her heroes were stronger then her when they were younger then she is now. Pasco was right... she was going to get herself killed. If he was right about that... then maybe he was right about Inquisitors turning bad. Maybe they were just like her when they were younger. She wanted to save the world now but who knows how she would feel after 10 years of trying to do it. Maybe Inquisitors gave up on the world and decided to save themselves instead. Maybe they were just naive children who got a taste of the real world and after 10 years it morphed them into another corrupted guild.

She continued staring at the flame while she thought things out. She had to accept the reality that Inquisitors might not be the same guild it was. She had to accept that she was weak and not ready to change the world. She should've never left Andrew's village. She should've just stayed and continued helping the village hunt food and doing odd jobs around.

A tear threatened to fall but she quickly wiped it away. Crying? No, not Jaz Remills. She was a tough girl. Tomboys don't cry. Only girly-girls cried. She wouldn't cry. She didn't know that Inquisitors turned bad. So what if she wasn't the best right now, she was going to become the best and change the world.

_That's right Eden, Jaz Remills doesn't give up. _

She laughed and threw herself back on her backpack. She somehow managed to blame Pasco for her sudden fluctuating emotions. He had her explain about the cylinder and that reminded her of her period and somehow she went through a mood swing. She went ahead and believed this so she could get the emotions under control. Jaz fell asleep that night and didn't even realize that she never had a mood swing during one of her periods in her entire life.

_ Bzzt...Bzzt..._

Jaz awoke to an annoying sound. She didn't open her eyes but she still knew the sun wasn't out. "Shut up..."

_Bzzt...Bzzt..._

"I'm trying to sleep..." She waved her hand dismissively at whoever was bothering her.

_Bzzt...Crackle...Bzzt..._

"That is it! In the name of the Mothers of Eden I am going to-"

Jaz shot her eyes open and whirled around to curse out Pasco or Fang. She found herself stopping mid-sentence when her eyes rested on the perpetrator. Her eyes rested on the smooth surface of its half-sphere shaped head. It bobbed up and down as it floated in front of her. Her eyes trailed down to its tentacles that sparked with electricity. She stared at the large Rainbow angelly for a moment. She sighed once she got over the initial shock. What was she worried about? Angelly were passive monsters. In fact here was no monster in limestone that attacked unprovoked without a leader. She waved away the Angelly that was about the same height as Pasco, at least if it's tentacles touched the ground.

"Go on little jelly." She shooed the creature away.

Upon seeing her wave her arm the angelly suddenly shot forth and Jaz barely avoided his electrically charged tentacles. She heard a loud crack from the electricity as it whipped its tentacle toward her a 2nd time. Again she barely dodged but this time she found herself on the ground. The angelly charged more electricity and Jaz reached for her staff. Jaz watched it whipped its tentacle, all she could do was hold up her staff in defense. That's when an arrow suddenly shot through the angelly's spherical shaped head. The angelly instantly dropped upon impact.

Jaz quickly pushed herself away from the dead body. She gasped when she felt a hand grab her shoulder. She turned her head quickly to see Pasco there with his bow in his left hand. She picked herself up off the ground after thanking the hafkin.

"You alright?" He asked her as his eyes searched her for any injury.

"I'm fine." Jaz answered while quickly checking herself just in case.

Pasco looked around once more and went to check the angelly he killed. Jaz watched him go over and poke the dead creature a few times while his bow was at the ready to deliver another shot if it dared move. Once he was sure it was dead he pulled the arrow out and saw it was still intact. She watched him sheathe the arrow. She was going to praise this action since she never would've thought to do it, but she noticed the fire was low. She didn't realize until now just how little she could see with the dim fire.

"Aw my fire." Jaz complained as she went over to it.

Pasco pushed away the dead corpse with his bow before walking back to her. "I thought angelly's don't attack people." Pasco looked to Jaz for answers.

"They don't. Just like mushroids they don't attack in groups unless they have a leader. All of the monsters in limestone are like that. We killed Herak and Mori Mori so the mushroids and the golems won't bother us for sure. Even when angellys have a leader, they don't attack people for no reason." Jaz explained while she added sticks to the fire.

"Tell that to the dead angelly." Pasco scoffed before taking a seat. It wasn't until Jaz got the flame to rise did he remember something important. "Fang was supposed to keep the fire lit..." He muttered in realization.

The flame grew higher and with it their field of vision. Jaz found herself frozen with wide eyes while Pasco quickly stood up took out an arrow. Surrounding them was a mass of angelly, all of them floating in place. A majority of them were the same size as the first she saw, but some were a little larger and were nearly the same height as her. Jaz finally stood up and gripped her staff after Pasco pulled an arrow back against his bowstring.

"Uh... Pasco? I really don't think provoking them will help." Jaz warned him.

Pasco eyed her before nodding and slowly sidestepping to his backpack, not wanting to take his eyes off them. "Ok... let's just slowly walk out of here." Pasco agreed after picking up his backpack.

Jaz nodded and went for her backpack. She reached out her arm for her backpack when they suddenly began to produce electricity. One shot forth toward her and she jumped back as an arrow shot through its head. Pasco quickly ran up and grabbed her arm. "Time to go!" He yelled while pulling her.

Jaz barely managed to grab her backpack. Pasco let her go when a angelly appeared in front of them. He shot an arrow so fast that Jaz barely saw him reach for the arrow in it's sheathe, pull it back and fire. Jaz saw the angellys had grown agitated and they began to dash toward them, using their large heads as momentum to go faster in a zig zag like motion. Jaz didn't bother looking twice as the mass of angellys began to chase after them. She ran ahead with Pasco in the direction that had the least angellys. Jaz watched Pasco shoot another angelly he intended to go through. Jaz was amazed by his aim and the fact that he could see. She could barely see anything in this darkness.

"Pasco I can't see a thing!" Jaz panicked as she reached for the hafkin.

Pasco said something she couldn't make out over the scream she produced next. A tentacle lashed out and wrapped around her right arm. The electricity shot through and instead of twitching or convulsing like she would expect electricity to do to her, she found that the current just ran through her entire body. The pain was unbearable as she suddenly found herself on her knees screaming.

She heard the sound of Pasco's bowstring straining and soon she heard the bow fire and stab into the angelly that had grabbed her. the tentacle fell limp and the pain reduced but it was far from gone. Jaz fell to the ground and found herself unable to move. Every movement sent the pain shooting through her body. Even breathing sent a sharp pain in her chest.

She heard Pasco fire a few more arrows before he leaned down and shook her. "Come on, Jaz! We have to go!" He yelled.

Jaz attempted to move but the pain shot through every muscle she tried to use. "I-I can't! It hurts so bad!" Jaz coughed, the pain still stabbing her with every breath.

Pasco shot a few more arrows and began backing away with each arrow as the angellys were getting closer. Jaz noticed and tried moving again, only to fall back on the ground coughing again. "Don't go! Don't leave me, Pasco! Please! It hurts so bad!" She screamed to Pasco, begging him not to leave.

Pasco readied another arrow as he continued backing away. He looked between Jaz and the angellys that were growing closer every second. He let out a loud growl before firing another arrow into a angelly and running up to Jaz. He grabbed Jaz under her injured arm and she screamed out again. He noticed the burnt flesh on her arm and quickly grabbed her left arm instead. He began pulling her as best he could. The pain shot through Jaz as much as before and she continued begging Pasco not to leave. Begging him not to leave her to die.

"God damn it!" Pasco shouted before suddenly dropping Jaz as a angelly rushed at him from the side.

Jaz pushed through the pain and reached her arm out to try to push herself up. "Don't leave me, Pasco! Please don't go, Pasco!" She shouted again, tears she didn't know about were already falling.

She heard another arrow be shot and a angelly fell just beside her. Pasco appeared again and grabbed her under her arm. He began dragging her again and cursed himself for being a hafkin. This girl weighed more than he did. He continued pulling her until she suddenly began to scream out again. Pasco looked up to see a angelly had gripped her ankle and was sending shockwaves through her body. He dropped her and shot another arrow. This was barely missed the head and instead pierced through the head of a angelly behind it. He cursed in hafkin before firing another one that pierced its head. The angelly's tentacle fell limp and Pasco grabbed Jaz again. She began begging him again and telling him how it hurt.

Pasco wanted to tell her it would be alright. He wanted to tell her they would make it, but he wasn't that type of person. She kept begging him not to go, coughing from the pain of speaking and breathing. Her eyes full of tears as she was unable to move. If only she didn't beg. If only she had just resigned herself to die. Pasco cursed her, he would've never gone back if she hadn't spoken up. Why did he let this girl get him into this situation? He continued pulling her until a angelly suddenly appeared in front of him. He dropped Jaz and attempted to pull out his bow but the angelly shot a tentacle straight for him. He barely dodged and pulled out his bow. Before he could pull the arrow back, he watched as the angelly was suddenly knocked over by a large figure. The angelly wrestled with this figure for just a few seconds before its head was crushed in by the monster's jaws.

Pasco instantly recognized this monster. "Fang!" He shouted.

His tiger discarded the carcass and quickly ran beside her master, growling to the angelly that were still in pursuit. Pasco saw the angelly were wary of Fang and decided to take his chance. He could do it. All he had to do was climb on top of Fang and run. She could easily outrun these angelly. All he had to do was jump on and go.

"Pasco... Please don't go..." He heard Jaz again, her voice had gotten a lot lower from when she started, but the desperation could be heard clearly.

He shrugged it off and shook his head. No, he did what he could. He needed to get out of her quickly. Like he said yesterday, he owed Jaz nothing anymore. She didn't even remember that he once owed her for saving his life. He saved her from Herak and cleaned his slate. He owed no one. He wasn't going to let some girl he barely knew get him killed. She should have never come in the first place. She didn't even know how to make a fire without magic. She didn't even know what to bring with her while traveling. She would die sooner or later with the way she was anyway. He couldn't watch her all the time. He wouldn't stay, he'd leave her and survive. He had a much better chance of survival, he deserved it. He wasn't responsible for her.

"Pasco..." She called again. He looked from the angellys that were growing impatient down to see she turned her head enough to look him in the eyes. Those pretty red eyes full of tears were begging with more words then she could speak. "Please help me Pasco. I don't want to die." She cried, begging for the hunter to help.

Those red eyes... so unfair. "Ahhh!" he suddenly shouted before running and grabbing her up once more. "Fang carry her!" He ordered his tiger while picking her up to throw over Fang's back. Fang complied and kneeled down to help get her on. Fang continued to linger after he'd got her on. He knew Fang wanted him to get on, but there was only room for one on her back. "Go on fang, I'll catch up!" He ordered her. She continued to linger and this time he smacked her shoulder. "I said go on!"

Fang eyed him for a moment before listening to her master and running away with Jaz. He shot an arrow into two angellys that attempted to give chase. He reached into his sheath and pulled out another three arrows before turning to the angellys behind him and firing a chain shot into three of them. The angellys sparked electricity and began to descend upon him. He turned around to run but suddenly found himself surrounded. He quickly looked for a way out but no matter where he looked there was no easy way out.

"Shit..." He growled. "Stupid eyes of hers! This is exactly what I get! Years of surviving and one look from those eyes and it's for nothing!" He yelled and fired an arrow, killing a angelly before taking up another arrow with his bow. "Stupid girl..." He whispered before he felt the strength leave his arm and let the arrow fall to the ground. He resigned himself to his fate, something he wished that stupid girl had done instead of calling for him.

No...

There was no point in lying to himself. He didn't wish she kept her mouth closed, he was glad she spoke up. He would have left her to die if she didn't, and that would have remained on his conscious for a long time. He wasn't new to death, he'd killed his fair share of bandits that attempted to kill him for his money or anything they could get their hands on. He wasn't new to death while defending himself. Leaving someone to die was unfamiliar to him though... even if he survived he didn't want to think about Jaz having died alone. dying alone was something that suited him better anyway... he couldn't remember the last time he ever traveled with someone. He was always alone... so what if he died alone? Nothing new... right?

He suddenly felt a tentacle stab into his chest. The electricity shot through him like a bullet. His eyes shot open and he screamed in pain as more tentacles closed in and sent their power into his body. He continued to scream out in agonizing pain as more angelly grew closer to him. At some point the pain dulled. Soon after the angelly released him and he fell to the ground unable to move. His eyes barely open, he saw a flash of orange and red tackle a angelly. Soon he saw something grey charge in next and a battle began to rage around him. He could hear angellys zapping creatures, he could hear loud roars and some squeaky noise. He couldn't tell, but it sounded like quite a few creatures were fighting with the angellys.

What did he care though? He couldn't feel his body at all, he couldn't even tell if he was breathing anymore. He was dying a pathetic death alone. He closed his eyes as the battle raged all around him. Soon his world fell into silence with a single thought coming to mind before the darkness took him.

_I wonder if she'll ever remember... when we met..._

Authors notes: And that's chapter 3. Nothing much to say I guess except that I hope you enjoyed.


End file.
